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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Touchdown! No, it’s not football — unless you imagine a playing field 300 million miles long and a fiery 25,000 mph end-zone plunge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ball in play is NASA’s Perseverance rover, which successfully touched down on Mars on Thursday at 12:55 p.m. PST, following a seven-month voyage and seven nail-biting minutes blazing through its atmosphere.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/?page=0&per_page=25&order=pub_date+desc&search=&condition_1=1%3Ais_in_resource_list&category=51\">Latest Mars images\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Follow the mission on Twitter\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now safely on the ground in Mars’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/landing-site/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jezero Crater\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Perseverance is set for what could be a game-changing mission of discovery: a search for signs of past Martian life in the river-deposited sediments of what was probably, long ago, a lake bottom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First Images from Jezero Crater\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only minutes after landing, Perseverance captured a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25596/perseverance-rovers-first-image-from-mars/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pair of images\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with two of its hazard avoidance cameras. The images were promptly relayed back to Earth via NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed over the landing site. The pictures were so fresh that dust lingered in the air, stirred up by Perseverance’s landing stage rockets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1972870\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first full-color, high-resolution image captured by the Perseverance rover’s hazard avoidance camera, following its landing in Jezero Crater. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the hours and days ahead, after the rover’s Mastcam camera is put into service, we should be able to enjoy sweeping, full-color, high-res panoramas from Jezero.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And more\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. “SuperCam” will use a camera, laser, and spectrometer to probe the chemistry of nearby rocks and soil to search for the spectral fingerprints of organic compounds. “RIMFAX” will send radar pulses into the ground to probe underground structures beneath the rover. And the rover’s long, robotic arm carries an array of instruments, including a rock drill and ultraviolet and X-ray spectrometers to dig into Mars’ mineral secrets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>In Search of Martian Critters\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perseverance is the first mission to look for signs of life on Mars since the Viking landers in the late 1970s. The Vikings carried instruments designed to detect biological activity of any organisms in Mars’ soil, though their findings were inconclusive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perseverance will \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/searching-for-life-in-nasas-perseverance-mars-samples?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=daily20210217-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">look for evidence of life\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that may have existed on Mars perhaps billions of years ago, when we know the planet possessed a thicker atmosphere and liquid surface water.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972815\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1972815\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA-800x594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"594\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA-800x594.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA-768x570.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA.jpg 947w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA’s Perseverance rover landing location in Jezero Crater. The rover landed safely on the dry lakebed, little more than a mile from the foot of a formation of river delta sediment, which scientists hope contain the chemical signatures of past life on Mars. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA selected the 28-mile-wide Jezero Crater to give Perseverance the best chance of finding signs of life. Long ago, the crater was filled with water, all the necessary ingredients for life were present. If life did thrive there, its chemical and mineral remnants might be found preserved in the rocks of the ancient lake bottom and shoreline.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jezero Crater also features an extensive deposit of river sediment, washed into the lake from the surrounding terrain at the mouth of a river, now long dry. This adds to the variety and abundance of material that Perseverance will have access to as it crawls around the dry lakebed and shoreline.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Earth, the muddy sediments at lake bottoms are repositories of biological material: the remains of microbes that lived in the water and mud. Over time, the sediments harden into rock — mudstone or sandstone — and may preserve chemical residues of the long dead critters. On Earth we also find knobby rock formations, called stromatolites, created long ago by microorganisms living in the shallow waters along shorelines.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If scientists can detect and analyze the chemical traces and rock formations left behind by ancient life on Earth, why not Mars? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Perseverance’s sophisticated yet portable instruments are unable to definitively reveal any “biosignatures” of ancient organisms in Jezero’s rocks, it’s still possible that more powerful instruments in laboratories back on Earth could. To this possibility, Perseverance will store promising soil and rock samples in sealed metal tubes and leave them along its trail. A future mission to collect these samples and return them to Earth, the Mars Sample Return mission, is already being planned. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Seven Minutes of Terror\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Landing an SUV-sized robotic rover on Mars isn’t a job for the faint of heart. The sequence of critical maneuvers from atmospheric entry and descent to landing must be pulled off without a hitch, and thus has been coined the “Seven Minutes of Terror.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It takes about seven minutes from when the spacecraft hits Mars’ upper atmosphere to when it lands on the surface, and every step of the process is carried out automatically through carefully preprogrammed commands and actions. Radio signals between Perseverance and its controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena took over 11 minutes to travel through space, so a real-time remote-controlled landing by human hand was impossible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czjS9h4Fpg&feature=emb_logo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the landing sequence began, controllers back on Earth could only sit back and hope for the best until it was all over. Jezero Crater’s rough terrain added to the stress, making this landing the most dangerous yet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortunately, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8860/nasas-next-mars-rover-is-ready-for-the-most-precise-landing-yet/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA’s getting pretty good at this\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is really saying something considering the nature of the challenges to overcome.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ingenuity\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike the four previous Mars rovers, Perseverance didn’t go to the red planet alone. Hitching a ride on the rover’s underbelly is the tiny, 4-pound “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mars Helicopter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” named Ingenuity through the same student essay contest that gave us Perseverance.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972862\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1972862 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of the Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, after being set on the ground by the Perseverance rover. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The light-weight, double-rotor vehicle is a technology demonstration for aerial exploration of Mars in the future. Equipped with computer, navigation sensors, two small cameras, solar cells and wireless communication, Ingenuity will make one or more short flights sometime within the first month of the mission, after mission scientists and engineers find a suitable launch location and determine the most favorable weather conditions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Life on Mars?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s exciting to think that we may be on the verge of finally uncovering hard evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life. This will be a world-changing discovery, even if all we find is the chemical residue of single-celled microbes that lived a billion years ago. In whatever form the evidence comes, it will answer that age old question: Are we alone in the universe?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine if Perseverance’s first high-resolution pictures of a Martian rock bore images of a fossilized life form of some sort? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlikely — but not impossible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Now safely on the ground and sending back images, Perseverance is set for what could be a game-changing mission of discovery: a search for signs of past Martian life in the river-deposited sediments of what was probably, long ago, a lake bottom.\r\n\r\n",
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"description": "Now safely on the ground and sending back images, Perseverance is set for what could be a game-changing mission of discovery: a search for signs of past Martian life in the river-deposited sediments of what was probably, long ago, a lake bottom.\r\n\r\n",
"title": "Was There Life on Mars? The Mission to Find Out Begins, as Perseverance Photos, Video Comes In | KQED",
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"headline": "Was There Life on Mars? The Mission to Find Out Begins, as Perseverance Photos, Video Comes In",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Touchdown! No, it’s not football — unless you imagine a playing field 300 million miles long and a fiery 25,000 mph end-zone plunge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ball in play is NASA’s Perseverance rover, which successfully touched down on Mars on Thursday at 12:55 p.m. PST, following a seven-month voyage and seven nail-biting minutes blazing through its atmosphere.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/?page=0&per_page=25&order=pub_date+desc&search=&condition_1=1%3Ais_in_resource_list&category=51\">Latest Mars images\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NASAPersevere?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Follow the mission on Twitter\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now safely on the ground in Mars’ \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/landing-site/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jezero Crater\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Perseverance is set for what could be a game-changing mission of discovery: a search for signs of past Martian life in the river-deposited sediments of what was probably, long ago, a lake bottom.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First Images from Jezero Crater\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only minutes after landing, Perseverance captured a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25596/perseverance-rovers-first-image-from-mars/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pair of images\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with two of its hazard avoidance cameras. The images were promptly relayed back to Earth via NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed over the landing site. The pictures were so fresh that dust lingered in the air, stirred up by Perseverance’s landing stage rockets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1972870\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/PIA24430-Perseverances_first_full-color_look_at_Mars-NASA-JPL-Caltech.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first full-color, high-resolution image captured by the Perseverance rover’s hazard avoidance camera, following its landing in Jezero Crater. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the hours and days ahead, after the rover’s Mastcam camera is put into service, we should be able to enjoy sweeping, full-color, high-res panoramas from Jezero.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And more\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. “SuperCam” will use a camera, laser, and spectrometer to probe the chemistry of nearby rocks and soil to search for the spectral fingerprints of organic compounds. “RIMFAX” will send radar pulses into the ground to probe underground structures beneath the rover. And the rover’s long, robotic arm carries an array of instruments, including a rock drill and ultraviolet and X-ray spectrometers to dig into Mars’ mineral secrets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>In Search of Martian Critters\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perseverance is the first mission to look for signs of life on Mars since the Viking landers in the late 1970s. The Vikings carried instruments designed to detect biological activity of any organisms in Mars’ soil, though their findings were inconclusive.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perseverance will \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/searching-for-life-in-nasas-perseverance-mars-samples?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=daily20210217-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">look for evidence of life\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that may have existed on Mars perhaps billions of years ago, when we know the planet possessed a thicker atmosphere and liquid surface water.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972815\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1972815\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA-800x594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"594\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA-800x594.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA-160x119.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA-768x570.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Perseverance-Landing-Site-NASA.jpg 947w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA’s Perseverance rover landing location in Jezero Crater. The rover landed safely on the dry lakebed, little more than a mile from the foot of a formation of river delta sediment, which scientists hope contain the chemical signatures of past life on Mars. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA selected the 28-mile-wide Jezero Crater to give Perseverance the best chance of finding signs of life. Long ago, the crater was filled with water, all the necessary ingredients for life were present. If life did thrive there, its chemical and mineral remnants might be found preserved in the rocks of the ancient lake bottom and shoreline.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jezero Crater also features an extensive deposit of river sediment, washed into the lake from the surrounding terrain at the mouth of a river, now long dry. This adds to the variety and abundance of material that Perseverance will have access to as it crawls around the dry lakebed and shoreline.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Earth, the muddy sediments at lake bottoms are repositories of biological material: the remains of microbes that lived in the water and mud. Over time, the sediments harden into rock — mudstone or sandstone — and may preserve chemical residues of the long dead critters. On Earth we also find knobby rock formations, called stromatolites, created long ago by microorganisms living in the shallow waters along shorelines.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If scientists can detect and analyze the chemical traces and rock formations left behind by ancient life on Earth, why not Mars? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Perseverance’s sophisticated yet portable instruments are unable to definitively reveal any “biosignatures” of ancient organisms in Jezero’s rocks, it’s still possible that more powerful instruments in laboratories back on Earth could. To this possibility, Perseverance will store promising soil and rock samples in sealed metal tubes and leave them along its trail. A future mission to collect these samples and return them to Earth, the Mars Sample Return mission, is already being planned. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Seven Minutes of Terror\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Landing an SUV-sized robotic rover on Mars isn’t a job for the faint of heart. The sequence of critical maneuvers from atmospheric entry and descent to landing must be pulled off without a hitch, and thus has been coined the “Seven Minutes of Terror.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It takes about seven minutes from when the spacecraft hits Mars’ upper atmosphere to when it lands on the surface, and every step of the process is carried out automatically through carefully preprogrammed commands and actions. Radio signals between Perseverance and its controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena took over 11 minutes to travel through space, so a real-time remote-controlled landing by human hand was impossible.\u003c/span>\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/4czjS9h4Fpg'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/4czjS9h4Fpg'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the landing sequence began, controllers back on Earth could only sit back and hope for the best until it was all over. Jezero Crater’s rough terrain added to the stress, making this landing the most dangerous yet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fortunately, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8860/nasas-next-mars-rover-is-ready-for-the-most-precise-landing-yet/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA’s getting pretty good at this\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is really saying something considering the nature of the challenges to overcome.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ingenuity\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlike the four previous Mars rovers, Perseverance didn’t go to the red planet alone. Hitching a ride on the rover’s underbelly is the tiny, 4-pound “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mars Helicopter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” named Ingenuity through the same student essay contest that gave us Perseverance.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972862\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1972862 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/25118_PIA23962-16.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of the Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, after being set on the ground by the Perseverance rover. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The light-weight, double-rotor vehicle is a technology demonstration for aerial exploration of Mars in the future. Equipped with computer, navigation sensors, two small cameras, solar cells and wireless communication, Ingenuity will make one or more short flights sometime within the first month of the mission, after mission scientists and engineers find a suitable launch location and determine the most favorable weather conditions.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Life on Mars?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s exciting to think that we may be on the verge of finally uncovering hard evidence for the existence of extraterrestrial life. This will be a world-changing discovery, even if all we find is the chemical residue of single-celled microbes that lived a billion years ago. In whatever form the evidence comes, it will answer that age old question: Are we alone in the universe?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine if Perseverance’s first high-resolution pictures of a Martian rock bore images of a fossilized life form of some sort? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Unlikely — but not impossible.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Watch Live Coverage of Mars Rover Perseverance Landing",
"headTitle": "Watch Live Coverage of Mars Rover Perseverance Landing | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm0b_ijaYMQ&list=PLTiv_XWHnOZo89xfQyRUub76zNlQTLNrJ&index=3\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">After years of complicated preparations, NASA is expected to attempt its ninth Mars landing on Thursday at 12:55 p.m. PT.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The live landing commentary will begin at 11:15 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">If it lands successfully, the rover, named\u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Perseverance\u003c/a>, will search for signs of ancient microbial life; collect broken rock and dust samples to be analyzed by researchers on Earth; study Mars’ geology and climate; and “pave the way for human exploration beyond the Moon,” according to NASA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perseverance also is carrying the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/\">Ingenuity Mars Helicopter\u003c/a>, which will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, according to a NASA \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-offers-opportunities-for-media-to-engage-with-mars-perseverance-rover-landing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">press\u003c/a> release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a schedule for Thursday’s events via NASA:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>11:15 a.m. — Live landing commentary on the NASA TV Public Channel and the agency’s website, as well as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/connect/apps.html\">NASA App\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/nasa\">YouTube\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/nasa\">Twitter\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/NASA/\">Facebook\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/nasa\">LinkedIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/nasa\">Twitch\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailymotion.com/NASA\">Daily Motion\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sliver.tv/win/nasa\">THETA.TV\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, an uninterrupted clean feed of cameras from inside JPL Mission Control, with mission audio only, will be available at 11 a.m. ET on the NASA TV \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#media\">Media Channel\u003c/a> and at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/user/JPLraw/live\">JPLraw YouTube\u003c/a> channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 360-degree livestream of the Mars landing from inside mission control, including landing commentary, will be available at the NASA-JPL YouTube channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>11:30 a.m. — “Juntos Perseveramos,” the live Spanish-language landing commentary show, on NASA en Español’s \u003ca href=\"https://youtube.com/NASA_ES\">YouTube\u003c/a> channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 12:55 p.m. — Expected time of Perseverance touchdown on Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No earlier than 2:30 p.m. — Post-landing news conference originating from Von Karman Auditorium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">\n\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/gm0b_ijaYMQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/gm0b_ijaYMQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">After years of complicated preparations, NASA is expected to attempt its ninth Mars landing on Thursday at 12:55 p.m. PT.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The live landing commentary will begin at 11:15 a.m.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">If it lands successfully, the rover, named\u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Perseverance\u003c/a>, will search for signs of ancient microbial life; collect broken rock and dust samples to be analyzed by researchers on Earth; study Mars’ geology and climate; and “pave the way for human exploration beyond the Moon,” according to NASA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perseverance also is carrying the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter/\">Ingenuity Mars Helicopter\u003c/a>, which will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet, according to a NASA \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-offers-opportunities-for-media-to-engage-with-mars-perseverance-rover-landing\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">press\u003c/a> release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s a schedule for Thursday’s events via NASA:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>11:15 a.m. — Live landing commentary on the NASA TV Public Channel and the agency’s website, as well as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/connect/apps.html\">NASA App\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/nasa\">YouTube\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/nasa\">Twitter\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/NASA/\">Facebook\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/company/nasa\">LinkedIn\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.twitch.tv/nasa\">Twitch\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.dailymotion.com/NASA\">Daily Motion\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.sliver.tv/win/nasa\">THETA.TV\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, an uninterrupted clean feed of cameras from inside JPL Mission Control, with mission audio only, will be available at 11 a.m. ET on the NASA TV \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html#media\">Media Channel\u003c/a> and at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/user/JPLraw/live\">JPLraw YouTube\u003c/a> channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A 360-degree livestream of the Mars landing from inside mission control, including landing commentary, will be available at the NASA-JPL YouTube channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>11:30 a.m. — “Juntos Perseveramos,” the live Spanish-language landing commentary show, on NASA en Español’s \u003ca href=\"https://youtube.com/NASA_ES\">YouTube\u003c/a> channel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About 12:55 p.m. — Expected time of Perseverance touchdown on Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No earlier than 2:30 p.m. — Post-landing news conference originating from Von Karman Auditorium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "After Breathtaking Images and Stupendous Discoveries, Spacecraft Juno Gets 4 More Years to Explore Jupiter",
"headTitle": "After Breathtaking Images and Stupendous Discoveries, Spacecraft Juno Gets 4 More Years to Explore Jupiter | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like an artist whose pleased patron commissions more masterpieces, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juno \u003c/a>\u003c/span>spacecraft just earned an extension after four extraordinary years of discovery. And if you’ve seen any of Juno’s images of Jupiter, you may find the artist reference apt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/images/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Explore images from Juno\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the Juno mission, little was known about the wind and cloud systems of the polar regions. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The solar-powered robotic probe, whose adventure exploring the atmosphere and interior of the planet \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/a-new-view-of-jupiters-storms\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jupiter \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was scheduled to end this July, has been granted a four-year extension, through September 2025. It’s mission has also expanded, and it will now investigate the planet’s system of rings and three of its large and remarkable moons.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Juno’s Primary Mission\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since its arrival at Jupiter in 2016, Juno’s observations have focused on dynamics that scientists previously knew very little about: the gas giant’s complex atmosphere and storm systems at the high latitudes of the northern polar region.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Juno has captured \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/images/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">breathtaking images\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of Jupiter’s cloud systems and other atmospheric phenomena at very close range. It’s also probed beneath the visible cloud layers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972431\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1972431 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichst%C3%A4dt-Se%C3%A1n-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A close-up of clouds and storm systems on Jupiter, captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during one of its close passes by the gas giant. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt-Seán)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/spacecraft/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">instruments \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that measure Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field and gravitational variations, Juno has divined processes and structures deep within the gaseous world. A\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mong \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/juno/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">its many discoveries \u003c/span>\u003c/a>are\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/juno-solves-39-year-old-mystery-of-jupiter-lightning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stupendous strokes of lightning\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> exploding dozens of miles beneath the planet’s thick layers of clouds; an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/findings-from-nasas-juno-update-jupiter-water-mystery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">abundance of water\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> welling up at the equator; \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/jupiter-s-aurora-presents-a-powerful-mystery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mighty auroras\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> surging high in the atmosphere; “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/whoa-like-jupiter-is-deep-really-really-deep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">packs” of Earth-sized storms\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> spinning around both poles; and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43317566\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wind systems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> whose roots are buried 1,000-2,000 miles below Jupiter’s cloud tops.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Juno’s Wild Orbit\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972439\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1972439 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of NASA’s Juno spacecraft cruising by Jupiter. Juno’s 53-day orbit carries it to within 2,600 miles of Jupiter’s cloud tops at closest approach, giving it a unique vantage point from which to study its atmosphere and make measurements of its interior. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To get close enough to Jupiter to do what it came for, Juno must pass through \u003ca href=\"https://www.popsci.com/how-juno-spacecraft-will-survive-jupiters-devastating-radiation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bands of intense radiation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, captured in Jupiter’s surrounding magnetic field. To minimize exposure to radiation damage, NASA placed Juno in a highly elliptical orbit that keeps it well outside the radiation belts most of the time. At the far-flung end of its elongated orbit, Juno is 5 million miles away from Jupiter, 20 times farther than our moon is from Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once every 53 days, Juno’s orbit carries it swiftly through the danger zone and close to Jupiter, passing only 2,600 miles above the cloud tops in the northern regions, offering a view like no other in the solar system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With each close pass by Jupiter, Juno’s orbit alters slightly due to interaction with the planet’s gravity. Over time, its point of closest approach has migrated northward, toward the pole, while the long loop of its extended orbit has shifted closer and closer to Jupiter’s large Galilean moons.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Targeting Jupiter’s Mystifying Moons\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the four additional years of Juno’s extended mission, its shifting orbit will send it past three of Jupiter’s Galilean moons: Ganymede, Europa and Io. No spacecraft has flown close to these small worlds since the Galileo probe two decades ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ganymede will be the first fly-by target, on June 7 this year. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/ganymede/in-depth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ganymede \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the largest moon in the solar system, half again bigger than Earth’s moon. Its surface is a patchwork of rough, ancient, cratered terrain overlapped by smooth, probably icy regions. It is the only moon in the solar system with a magnetic field of its own, and its poles are lit up with auroras. Strong evidence exists that a liquid water ocean lies hidden beneath Ganymede’s surface.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972438\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1972438\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona-800x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona-800x768.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona-160x154.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona-768x737.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona.jpg 999w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jupiter’s moon Io. This image was captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft during one of its close flybys of this moon. Io is the most volcanically activity object in the solar system. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/io/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Io \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the most volcanically active moon in the solar system, with hundreds of sulfurous eruptions spewing out lava and gas, in some cases dozens of miles into the sky. Volcanic Io will receive a pair of visits, on Dec. 30, 2023, and Feb. 3, 2024.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most intriguing of all is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Europa\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which shelters a saltwater ocean beneath its icy crust. Europa’s ocean may be as much as 100 miles deep, and its waters are thawed by heat emerging from the moon’s interior. Scientists are excited by the possibility that within Europa’s ocean may exist conditions that could support life. On Sept. 29, 2022, Juno will have a close encounter with Europa. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During its extended mission, Juno will also fly through trails of ions shed into space by Io’s volcanoes, and plumes of water vapor erupting from Europa’s icy crust. By sampling the composition of Europa’s water vapor plumes, scientists hope to better understand the nature of the moon’s ocean.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Recon for Upcoming Missions\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extending Juno’s exploration to include the Jovian moons will help pave the way for two upcoming missions: NASA’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Europa Clipper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the European Space Agency’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sci.esa.int/web/juice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JUICE\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, scheduled to launch later this decade. Both of these spacecraft will investigate the Galilean moons in great detail, with a special focus on Europa and its tantalizing ocean.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972670\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1972670\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-800x271.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-800x271.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-1020x345.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-160x54.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-768x260.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-1038x352.jpg 1038w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Magnificent belts of clouds dominate areas of Jupiter’s southern polar region. This image was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during one of its close flybys of the gas giant world. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/David Marriott)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the end of its extended mission in 2025, Juno will have orbited Jupiter 76 times over eight years and collected enough data to keep scientists busy for many more years to come.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, Juno will be deliberately driven into Jupiter’s atmosphere, where it will be incinerated in a fiery finale, its atoms forever becoming part of the world it has explored. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "NASA has extended Juno's mission exploring Jupiter by four years, and projected close flybys of three Jovian moons. ",
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"title": "After Breathtaking Images and Stupendous Discoveries, Spacecraft Juno Gets 4 More Years to Explore Jupiter | KQED",
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"headline": "After Breathtaking Images and Stupendous Discoveries, Spacecraft Juno Gets 4 More Years to Explore Jupiter",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like an artist whose pleased patron commissions more masterpieces, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/main/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Juno \u003c/a>\u003c/span>spacecraft just earned an extension after four extraordinary years of discovery. And if you’ve seen any of Juno’s images of Jupiter, you may find the artist reference apt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/images/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Explore images from Juno\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the Juno mission, little was known about the wind and cloud systems of the polar regions. \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The solar-powered robotic probe, whose adventure exploring the atmosphere and interior of the planet \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/a-new-view-of-jupiters-storms\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jupiter \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was scheduled to end this July, has been granted a four-year extension, through September 2025. It’s mission has also expanded, and it will now investigate the planet’s system of rings and three of its large and remarkable moons.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Juno’s Primary Mission\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since its arrival at Jupiter in 2016, Juno’s observations have focused on dynamics that scientists previously knew very little about: the gas giant’s complex atmosphere and storm systems at the high latitudes of the northern polar region.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Juno has captured \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/images/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">breathtaking images\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of Jupiter’s cloud systems and other atmospheric phenomena at very close range. It’s also probed beneath the visible cloud layers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972431\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1972431 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichst%C3%A4dt-Se%C3%A1n-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/181215042152-nasa-juno-01-super-169NASA-JPL-Caltech-SwRI-MSSS-Gerald-Eichstädt-Seán.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A close-up of clouds and storm systems on Jupiter, captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during one of its close passes by the gas giant. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Gerald Eichstädt-Seán)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/spacecraft/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">instruments \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that measure Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field and gravitational variations, Juno has divined processes and structures deep within the gaseous world. A\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mong \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/juno/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">its many discoveries \u003c/span>\u003c/a>are\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/juno-solves-39-year-old-mystery-of-jupiter-lightning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">stupendous strokes of lightning\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> exploding dozens of miles beneath the planet’s thick layers of clouds; an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/findings-from-nasas-juno-update-jupiter-water-mystery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">abundance of water\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> welling up at the equator; \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/jupiter-s-aurora-presents-a-powerful-mystery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mighty auroras\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> surging high in the atmosphere; “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/whoa-like-jupiter-is-deep-really-really-deep\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">packs” of Earth-sized storms\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> spinning around both poles; and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43317566\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wind systems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> whose roots are buried 1,000-2,000 miles below Jupiter’s cloud tops.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Juno’s Wild Orbit\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972439\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1972439 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Juno-nasa-jpl-caltech-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of NASA’s Juno spacecraft cruising by Jupiter. Juno’s 53-day orbit carries it to within 2,600 miles of Jupiter’s cloud tops at closest approach, giving it a unique vantage point from which to study its atmosphere and make measurements of its interior. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To get close enough to Jupiter to do what it came for, Juno must pass through \u003ca href=\"https://www.popsci.com/how-juno-spacecraft-will-survive-jupiters-devastating-radiation/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">bands of intense radiation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, captured in Jupiter’s surrounding magnetic field. To minimize exposure to radiation damage, NASA placed Juno in a highly elliptical orbit that keeps it well outside the radiation belts most of the time. At the far-flung end of its elongated orbit, Juno is 5 million miles away from Jupiter, 20 times farther than our moon is from Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once every 53 days, Juno’s orbit carries it swiftly through the danger zone and close to Jupiter, passing only 2,600 miles above the cloud tops in the northern regions, offering a view like no other in the solar system.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With each close pass by Jupiter, Juno’s orbit alters slightly due to interaction with the planet’s gravity. Over time, its point of closest approach has migrated northward, toward the pole, while the long loop of its extended orbit has shifted closer and closer to Jupiter’s large Galilean moons.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Targeting Jupiter’s Mystifying Moons\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the four additional years of Juno’s extended mission, its shifting orbit will send it past three of Jupiter’s Galilean moons: Ganymede, Europa and Io. No spacecraft has flown close to these small worlds since the Galileo probe two decades ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ganymede will be the first fly-by target, on June 7 this year. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/ganymede/in-depth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ganymede \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the largest moon in the solar system, half again bigger than Earth’s moon. Its surface is a patchwork of rough, ancient, cratered terrain overlapped by smooth, probably icy regions. It is the only moon in the solar system with a magnetic field of its own, and its poles are lit up with auroras. Strong evidence exists that a liquid water ocean lies hidden beneath Ganymede’s surface.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972438\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1972438\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona-800x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona-800x768.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona-160x154.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona-768x737.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Io-galileo-NASA-JPL-University-of-Arizona.jpg 999w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jupiter’s moon Io. This image was captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft during one of its close flybys of this moon. Io is the most volcanically activity object in the solar system. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/io/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Io \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is the most volcanically active moon in the solar system, with hundreds of sulfurous eruptions spewing out lava and gas, in some cases dozens of miles into the sky. Volcanic Io will receive a pair of visits, on Dec. 30, 2023, and Feb. 3, 2024.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most intriguing of all is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Europa\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which shelters a saltwater ocean beneath its icy crust. Europa’s ocean may be as much as 100 miles deep, and its waters are thawed by heat emerging from the moon’s interior. Scientists are excited by the possibility that within Europa’s ocean may exist conditions that could support life. On Sept. 29, 2022, Juno will have a close encounter with Europa. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During its extended mission, Juno will also fly through trails of ions shed into space by Io’s volcanoes, and plumes of water vapor erupting from Europa’s icy crust. By sampling the composition of Europa’s water vapor plumes, scientists hope to better understand the nature of the moon’s ocean.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Recon for Upcoming Missions\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extending Juno’s exploration to include the Jovian moons will help pave the way for two upcoming missions: NASA’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Europa Clipper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the European Space Agency’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sci.esa.int/web/juice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">JUICE\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, scheduled to launch later this decade. Both of these spacecraft will investigate the Galilean moons in great detail, with a special focus on Europa and its tantalizing ocean.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972670\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1972670\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-800x271.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"271\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-800x271.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-1020x345.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-160x54.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-768x260.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts-1038x352.jpg 1038w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/02/Jupiter-southern-cloudbelts.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Magnificent belts of clouds dominate areas of Jupiter’s southern polar region. This image was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during one of its close flybys of the gas giant world. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/David Marriott)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the end of its extended mission in 2025, Juno will have orbited Jupiter 76 times over eight years and collected enough data to keep scientists busy for many more years to come.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, Juno will be deliberately driven into Jupiter’s atmosphere, where it will be incinerated in a fiery finale, its atoms forever becoming part of the world it has explored. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Did Earth Receive a Radio Transmission From Proxima Centauri? ",
"headTitle": "Did Earth Receive a Radio Transmission From Proxima Centauri? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A team of astronomers is hard at work analyzing an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://public.nrao.edu/blogs/whats-that-radio-signal-from-proxima-centauri/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">unusual radio signal\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> detected early in 2019 by the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Facilities/ATNF/Parkes-radio-telescope/About-Parkes\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Parkes telescope\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a 64-meter radio dish in eastern Australia. The signal appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our solar system, and its characteristics are more typical of an artificial broadcast than a natural radio source. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Is this the long-awaited sign of intelligent life out there among the stars, proof that we are not alone in the universe? More exciting — or concerning, depending on how you feel about space aliens — are there ETs living in the next star system over, our closest neighbor in the galaxy? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s tantalizing to imagine this. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972091\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1972091\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/ProximaCentaur-ESA-NASA-HST.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/ProximaCentaur-ESA-NASA-HST.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/ProximaCentaur-ESA-NASA-HST-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hubble Space Telescope image of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the smallest and faintest member of the triple Alpha Centauri star system, and the closest star to our solar system. \u003ccite>(ESA/NASA/Hubble)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, even the signal’s discoverers, researchers with a group called the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.seti.org/breakthrough-listen\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Breakthrough Listen Initiative\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, caution that although the signal had very particular qualities that set it apart from typical natural radio emissions, it will most likely turn out to be noise or interference caused by our own communication technology here on Earth, or even a natural phenomenon that has simply not been observed before. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, at this moment, the possibility has not been ruled out for an intercepted alien transmission, so there’s still some space to let our imaginations play with the idea a bit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Signal\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://astronomy.com/news/2020/12/heres-what-we-know-about-the-signal-from-proxima-centauri\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">radio signal\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that has stirred up so much excitement was detected during observations of flares erupting from the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the smallest member of the triple Alpha Centauri system. At a distance of only 4.25 light years, Proxima Centauri is a stone’s throw away, astronomically speaking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The signal was concentrated in a very narrow slice of the radio frequency spectrum, at 982 megahertz, which is typical of an artificial transmission. Signals from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/ems/05_radiowaves\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">natural sources\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> contain a wider mix of frequencies. Researchers listen for exactly this kind of narrow signal as they monitor star systems for any of non-natural, non-human origin. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972093\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1972093\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Proxima-b-surface-artist-concept-ESO-M.-Kornmesser-UNIGE..jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Proxima-b-surface-artist-concept-ESO-M.-Kornmesser-UNIGE..jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Proxima-b-surface-artist-concept-ESO-M.-Kornmesser-UNIGE.-160x70.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of the surface of the super-Earth-sized exoplanet Proxima Centauri b, which orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri within its habitable zone where it is warm enough for the existence of liquid surface water. We have no close-up pictures of this world, and whether water exists on its surface is yet unknown. \u003ccite>(ESO/M.-Kornmesser/UNIGE)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s exciting to imagine that we have heard the radio whispers from extraterrestrial technology, whether it was a deliberate transmission aimed at us or merely ET’s television broadcasts drifting through space. Adding to the excitement, Proxima Centauri is known to possess at least two planets. One of them, a “super-Earth” called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7167/proxima-centauri-b/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proxima Centauri b\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, orbits within its star’s habitable zone, at the right distance for the star’s warmth to support liquid surface water and a potentially life-friendly environment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.seti.org/did-proxima-centauri-just-call-say-hello-not-really\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">researchers at Breakthrough Listen Initiative caution\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that with further analysis, the unusual signal will most likely turn out to be only radio interference from human technology — which has happened before — a final conclusion hasn’t been made. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Breakthrough Listen Initiative\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Breakthrough Listen Initiative is a $100 million international effort to discover radio transmissions from extraterrestrial civilizations. Kicked off by Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking in 2015, the Initiative is the most advanced and comprehensive ET-finding program humans have ever embarked on. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 10-year project will survey a million nearby stars, the entire plane of the Milky Way galaxy, and 100 nearby galaxies. The ambitious scale of these goals speaks loudly. There is still huge enthusiasm for answering the question: Is humanity alone in the cosmos, or do we share the galaxy with other intelligent, technological civilizations?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972094\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1972094\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/tess__2-nasa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/tess__2-nasa.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/tess__2-nasa-160x119.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is currently surveying the closest stars to our solar system for extrasolar planets. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To help guide its search, the Breakthrough Listen Initiative is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.seti.org/press-release/breakthrough-listen-collaborate-scientists-nasas-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite-tess-team\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">partnering with a NASA \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mission searching the nearest stars for \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">extrasolar planets\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/tess-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">TESS\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> spacecraft is expected to find thousands of exoplanets, including worlds the size of Earth, orbiting within their stars’ habitable zones. Targeting stars where TESS has discovered potentially life-friendly worlds improves the initiative’s chances of finding one with an intelligent, technological civilization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists have been using radio telescopes for decades to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterre/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">search for transmissions of intelligent origin\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, going back practically to the genesis of radio technology in the early 20th century. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://seti.org/?gclid=CjwKCAiA_9r_BRBZEiwAHZ_v1yV8BAR7KdwOg4GbNz_xsD63nCOyj0b8bIe3lsPgNWnwjHKwL6wAJxoCqn0QAvD_BwE\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SETI\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, brought scientists together in the 1980s in a coordinated effort to detect ET radio signals, and was popularized in the 1997 movie “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contact\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” adapted from the novel by Carl Sagan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Piecing together the facts around Proxima Centauri and the unusual signal detected by the Parkes radio telescope, it’s tempting to envision some far-out possibilities. A seemingly artificial signal coming from the closest star system? An Earth-sized planet with an environment possibly friendly to life? The discovery excites the imagination. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if the signal ultimately turns out to be a trick of our own technology, while there’s still a fleeting chance of a world-changing event like discovering extraterrestrial intelligence, we can enjoy a moment reveling in the possibility. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A team of astronomers is working to analyze an unusual radio signal detected early in 2019 with characteristics more typical of an artificial broadcast than a natural source. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A team of astronomers is hard at work analyzing an \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://public.nrao.edu/blogs/whats-that-radio-signal-from-proxima-centauri/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">unusual radio signal\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> detected early in 2019 by the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Facilities/ATNF/Parkes-radio-telescope/About-Parkes\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Parkes telescope\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a 64-meter radio dish in eastern Australia. The signal appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to our solar system, and its characteristics are more typical of an artificial broadcast than a natural radio source. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Is this the long-awaited sign of intelligent life out there among the stars, proof that we are not alone in the universe? More exciting — or concerning, depending on how you feel about space aliens — are there ETs living in the next star system over, our closest neighbor in the galaxy? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s tantalizing to imagine this. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972091\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1972091\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/ProximaCentaur-ESA-NASA-HST.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/ProximaCentaur-ESA-NASA-HST.jpg 600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/ProximaCentaur-ESA-NASA-HST-160x120.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hubble Space Telescope image of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the smallest and faintest member of the triple Alpha Centauri star system, and the closest star to our solar system. \u003ccite>(ESA/NASA/Hubble)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">However, even the signal’s discoverers, researchers with a group called the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.seti.org/breakthrough-listen\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Breakthrough Listen Initiative\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, caution that although the signal had very particular qualities that set it apart from typical natural radio emissions, it will most likely turn out to be noise or interference caused by our own communication technology here on Earth, or even a natural phenomenon that has simply not been observed before. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, at this moment, the possibility has not been ruled out for an intercepted alien transmission, so there’s still some space to let our imaginations play with the idea a bit. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Signal\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://astronomy.com/news/2020/12/heres-what-we-know-about-the-signal-from-proxima-centauri\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">radio signal\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that has stirred up so much excitement was detected during observations of flares erupting from the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the smallest member of the triple Alpha Centauri system. At a distance of only 4.25 light years, Proxima Centauri is a stone’s throw away, astronomically speaking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The signal was concentrated in a very narrow slice of the radio frequency spectrum, at 982 megahertz, which is typical of an artificial transmission. Signals from \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://science.nasa.gov/ems/05_radiowaves\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">natural sources\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> contain a wider mix of frequencies. Researchers listen for exactly this kind of narrow signal as they monitor star systems for any of non-natural, non-human origin. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972093\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 750px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1972093\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Proxima-b-surface-artist-concept-ESO-M.-Kornmesser-UNIGE..jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"750\" height=\"329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Proxima-b-surface-artist-concept-ESO-M.-Kornmesser-UNIGE..jpg 750w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/Proxima-b-surface-artist-concept-ESO-M.-Kornmesser-UNIGE.-160x70.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of the surface of the super-Earth-sized exoplanet Proxima Centauri b, which orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri within its habitable zone where it is warm enough for the existence of liquid surface water. We have no close-up pictures of this world, and whether water exists on its surface is yet unknown. \u003ccite>(ESO/M.-Kornmesser/UNIGE)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s exciting to imagine that we have heard the radio whispers from extraterrestrial technology, whether it was a deliberate transmission aimed at us or merely ET’s television broadcasts drifting through space. Adding to the excitement, Proxima Centauri is known to possess at least two planets. One of them, a “super-Earth” called \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7167/proxima-centauri-b/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Proxima Centauri b\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, orbits within its star’s habitable zone, at the right distance for the star’s warmth to support liquid surface water and a potentially life-friendly environment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">While \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.seti.org/did-proxima-centauri-just-call-say-hello-not-really\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">researchers at Breakthrough Listen Initiative caution\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that with further analysis, the unusual signal will most likely turn out to be only radio interference from human technology — which has happened before — a final conclusion hasn’t been made. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Breakthrough Listen Initiative\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Breakthrough Listen Initiative is a $100 million international effort to discover radio transmissions from extraterrestrial civilizations. Kicked off by Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking in 2015, the Initiative is the most advanced and comprehensive ET-finding program humans have ever embarked on. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 10-year project will survey a million nearby stars, the entire plane of the Milky Way galaxy, and 100 nearby galaxies. The ambitious scale of these goals speaks loudly. There is still huge enthusiasm for answering the question: Is humanity alone in the cosmos, or do we share the galaxy with other intelligent, technological civilizations?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1972094\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 400px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1972094\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/tess__2-nasa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/tess__2-nasa.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2021/01/tess__2-nasa-160x119.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is currently surveying the closest stars to our solar system for extrasolar planets. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To help guide its search, the Breakthrough Listen Initiative is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.seti.org/press-release/breakthrough-listen-collaborate-scientists-nasas-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite-tess-team\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">partnering with a NASA \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">mission searching the nearest stars for \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">extrasolar planets\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/tess-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">TESS\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> spacecraft is expected to find thousands of exoplanets, including worlds the size of Earth, orbiting within their stars’ habitable zones. Targeting stars where TESS has discovered potentially life-friendly worlds improves the initiative’s chances of finding one with an intelligent, technological civilization. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists have been using radio telescopes for decades to \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-search-for-extraterre/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">search for transmissions of intelligent origin\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, going back practically to the genesis of radio technology in the early 20th century. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://seti.org/?gclid=CjwKCAiA_9r_BRBZEiwAHZ_v1yV8BAR7KdwOg4GbNz_xsD63nCOyj0b8bIe3lsPgNWnwjHKwL6wAJxoCqn0QAvD_BwE\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SETI\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, brought scientists together in the 1980s in a coordinated effort to detect ET radio signals, and was popularized in the 1997 movie “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Contact\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,” adapted from the novel by Carl Sagan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Piecing together the facts around Proxima Centauri and the unusual signal detected by the Parkes radio telescope, it’s tempting to envision some far-out possibilities. A seemingly artificial signal coming from the closest star system? An Earth-sized planet with an environment possibly friendly to life? The discovery excites the imagination. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if the signal ultimately turns out to be a trick of our own technology, while there’s still a fleeting chance of a world-changing event like discovering extraterrestrial intelligence, we can enjoy a moment reveling in the possibility. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Jupiter and Saturn Conjunction: How to See It on Monday",
"headTitle": "Jupiter and Saturn Conjunction: How to See It on Monday | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the evening of Dec. 21, the planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer together than in centuries, only a tenth of a degree apart, or one-fifth the width of the full moon. They won’t be this close again until March 2080.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This juxtaposition of giants will shine like few things you’ve seen in the sky, and offers a rare sight through the eyepiece of even a small telescope.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Great Conjunction\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since before the pandemic began, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jupiter \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saturn \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">have crept closer and closer together, first appearing back in February, rising with the dawn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though the two gas giant planets are physically almost half a billion miles apart, their orbital motions periodically bring them close together, from our perspective on Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Jupiter, orbiting the sun once every 12 years, overtakes the slower-moving Saturn, their visual convergence is called a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/planets/great-conjunction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Great Conjunction\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This happens every two decades, though sometimes the pairing appears too close to the sun to be seen. And the two don’t usually get as close as they will on Dec. 21, 2020.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What to Look For\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you’ve been tracking Jupiter and Saturn over the past few weeks, you know where to find them: low over the southwest horizon shortly after sunset — starting as soon as 5:30 p.m., even before the glow of twilight has faded. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can’t miss Jupiter, the larger and closer of the duo, a gold-white beacon dominating a patch of sky with no particularly bright stars nearby. After that, Saturn is an easy second, above and to the left of Jupiter. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1971708\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-800x521.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"521\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-800x521.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-1020x664.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-768x500.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-1536x1000.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-2048x1334.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-1920x1250.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will appear close enough to each other to be seen simultaneously through the eyepiece of even a low-powered telescope. Several of the solar system’s largest and most fascinating moons will also be seen in the view, including volcanic Io, the ocean-harboring Europa, and Saturn’s Titan, the only moon to possess a thick atmosphere. \u003ccite>(Ben Burress/Created using Stellarium)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just after sunset on Monday, Dec. 21, one thing will change to the casual glance: you may notice only one shining beacon, resting low in the fading glow of dusk near the horizon. With good eyesight you may still see two planets, but they will almost appear to merge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you have a small telescope, this meeting of Jupiter and Saturn may be one of the most thrilling things you’ve ever seen through the eyepiece. In a single view you will see not only the two majestic gas giant planets, but Saturn’s iconic system of rings, and several of the largest and most intriguing moons in the solar system, Jupiter’s Callisto, Io, and Europa, and Saturn’s Titan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971707\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971707 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-800x433.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"433\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-800x433.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-1020x552.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-160x87.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-768x416.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-1536x831.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A montage showing Jupiter’s moon Europa set before the gas giant planet’s mighty face. Europa hides a massive ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pleasure of witnessing this convergence will be short-lived since Jupiter and Saturn set together around 7 p.m., offering scarcely an hour to enjoy the rare and beautiful spectacle. By 6:30 the pair will be approaching the horizon and any obstructions there may be — trees, buildings, hills. So don’t wait too late!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Juno and Huygens\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Currently, there is only one spacecraft, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/juno/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NASA’s Juno\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, orbiting either of the gas giants. Juno is investigating Jupiter’s previously unexplored polar region, shedding light on an unexpectedly beautiful and mysterious realm of spinning, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-juno-navigators-enable-jupiter-cyclone-discovery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">twisting cloud and storm systems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Juno is also probing Jupiter’s interior, seeking to understand its structure, the processes that create its powerful magnetic field and atmospheric auroras, and what might lie deep in the gas giant’s core.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NASA and the European Space Agency are preparing future missions to Jupiter to investigate the hidden ocean of its moon \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Europa\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NASA’s Europa Clipper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the European \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sci.esa.int/web/juice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">JUICE \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">spacecraft are slated to launch early this decade, though it will take several years for the spacecraft to get there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971710 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist rendering of the European Huygens probe, which landed on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005. The now derelict lander is the only piece of human technology anywhere in the Saturn system, after the deliberate incineration of mothership Cassini several years ago. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A billion miles away in the Saturn system, the only human artifact remaining is the tiny and defunct \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/mission/spacecraft/huygens-probe/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">European Huygens\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> probe, which \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NASA’s Cassini\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> spacecraft dropped onto the surface of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/titan/in-depth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Titan \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in 2005. Cassini was deliberately incinerated in a fiery plunge through Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you miss this union of giant planets, you’ll only have to wait 60 years for your next chance — so I’d recommend going for it this time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the evening of Dec. 21, the planets Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer together than in centuries, only a tenth of a degree apart, or one-fifth the width of the full moon. They won’t be this close again until March 2080.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This juxtaposition of giants will shine like few things you’ve seen in the sky, and offers a rare sight through the eyepiece of even a small telescope.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Great Conjunction\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since before the pandemic began, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jupiter \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/saturn/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Saturn \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">have crept closer and closer together, first appearing back in February, rising with the dawn.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though the two gas giant planets are physically almost half a billion miles apart, their orbital motions periodically bring them close together, from our perspective on Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Jupiter, orbiting the sun once every 12 years, overtakes the slower-moving Saturn, their visual convergence is called a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/planets/great-conjunction\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Great Conjunction\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. This happens every two decades, though sometimes the pairing appears too close to the sun to be seen. And the two don’t usually get as close as they will on Dec. 21, 2020.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What to Look For\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you’ve been tracking Jupiter and Saturn over the past few weeks, you know where to find them: low over the southwest horizon shortly after sunset — starting as soon as 5:30 p.m., even before the glow of twilight has faded. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You can’t miss Jupiter, the larger and closer of the duo, a gold-white beacon dominating a patch of sky with no particularly bright stars nearby. After that, Saturn is an easy second, above and to the left of Jupiter. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971708\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1971708\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-800x521.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"521\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-800x521.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-1020x664.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-768x500.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-1536x1000.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-2048x1334.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/Jupiter-Saturn-Conjunction-1920x1250.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">On December 21, 2020, Jupiter and Saturn will appear close enough to each other to be seen simultaneously through the eyepiece of even a low-powered telescope. Several of the solar system’s largest and most fascinating moons will also be seen in the view, including volcanic Io, the ocean-harboring Europa, and Saturn’s Titan, the only moon to possess a thick atmosphere. \u003ccite>(Ben Burress/Created using Stellarium)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just after sunset on Monday, Dec. 21, one thing will change to the casual glance: you may notice only one shining beacon, resting low in the fading glow of dusk near the horizon. With good eyesight you may still see two planets, but they will almost appear to merge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you have a small telescope, this meeting of Jupiter and Saturn may be one of the most thrilling things you’ve ever seen through the eyepiece. In a single view you will see not only the two majestic gas giant planets, but Saturn’s iconic system of rings, and several of the largest and most intriguing moons in the solar system, Jupiter’s Callisto, Io, and Europa, and Saturn’s Titan.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971707\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971707 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-800x433.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"433\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-800x433.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-1020x552.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-160x87.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-768x416.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech-1536x831.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/jupiter-and-europa-nasa-jpl-caltech.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A montage showing Jupiter’s moon Europa set before the gas giant planet’s mighty face. Europa hides a massive ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The pleasure of witnessing this convergence will be short-lived since Jupiter and Saturn set together around 7 p.m., offering scarcely an hour to enjoy the rare and beautiful spectacle. By 6:30 the pair will be approaching the horizon and any obstructions there may be — trees, buildings, hills. So don’t wait too late!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Juno and Huygens\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Currently, there is only one spacecraft, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/juno/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NASA’s Juno\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, orbiting either of the gas giants. Juno is investigating Jupiter’s previously unexplored polar region, shedding light on an unexpectedly beautiful and mysterious realm of spinning, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-juno-navigators-enable-jupiter-cyclone-discovery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">twisting cloud and storm systems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Juno is also probing Jupiter’s interior, seeking to understand its structure, the processes that create its powerful magnetic field and atmospheric auroras, and what might lie deep in the gas giant’s core.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NASA and the European Space Agency are preparing future missions to Jupiter to investigate the hidden ocean of its moon \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/jupiter-moons/europa/in-depth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Europa\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/europa-clipper/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NASA’s Europa Clipper\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and the European \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://sci.esa.int/web/juice\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">JUICE \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">spacecraft are slated to launch early this decade, though it will take several years for the spacecraft to get there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971710\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971710 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/12/1181_huygensartistrendering_full_main-NASA.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist rendering of the European Huygens probe, which landed on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan in 2005. The now derelict lander is the only piece of human technology anywhere in the Saturn system, after the deliberate incineration of mothership Cassini several years ago. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A billion miles away in the Saturn system, the only human artifact remaining is the tiny and defunct \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/mission/spacecraft/huygens-probe/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">European Huygens\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> probe, which \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/overview/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">NASA’s Cassini\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> spacecraft dropped onto the surface of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/titan/in-depth/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Titan \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">in 2005. Cassini was deliberately incinerated in a fiery plunge through Saturn’s atmosphere in 2017.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you miss this union of giant planets, you’ll only have to wait 60 years for your next chance — so I’d recommend going for it this time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Celebrating the End of 2020? Look Up! Meteor Shower Rains Nightly Fireworks",
"headTitle": "Celebrating the End of 2020? Look Up! Meteor Shower Rains Nightly Fireworks | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/geminids/in-depth/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Geminids\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, will peak this year on Monday morning, Dec. 14, lavishing the skies with as many as 120 meteors every hour.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And this year, the absence of the moon means darker skies while you enjoy the “falling stars.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Good Meteor Watching\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the weather is nice, cold December mornings often bring crystal clear skies, and this year the waning crescent moon will be gone most of the night, only appearing in the last moments before dawn as a thin sliver.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1971308\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-800x506.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"506\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-800x506.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-1020x646.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-160x101.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-768x486.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-1536x972.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford.jpg 1776w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Perseid meteor, captured over Park City, Utah. \u003ccite>(NASA/Bill Dunford)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s simple math: abundant meteors, plus a clear dark night, minus the moonlight, equals the possibility of dazzling rewards!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How To Watch the Geminids\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After midnight following Sunday evening, in the early morning hours of Monday, Dec. 14, find a good, safe place where you can set up a cot or roll out a blanket on the ground and look up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The meteors will appear to radiate from near \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://nineplanets.org/gemini-constellation/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gemini\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Geminids’ namesake constellation. By 2 a.m., Gemini will be almost directly overhead, 85 degrees above the southern horizon. Look for the “twin” stars \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Dioscuri/dioscuri.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Castor and Pollux\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a pair of equally bright stars set about five degrees apart, or the width of four fingers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971306 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium-800x696.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"696\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium-800x696.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium-160x139.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium-768x668.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium.jpg 924w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">View of the sky at 2 a.m. on Dec. 14. The radiant of the Geminids meteors (shown as red lines) is in the constellation Gemini, and will be almost directly overhead, and slightly to the south. \u003ccite>(Graphic made using Stellarium)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With your sights set high, lay back and relax as (You hope!) a multitude of meteors rain down around you. If conditions are good, you may see two or so each minute. Though their radiant point is in Gemini, the meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, so use your peripheral vision to catch as many as you can. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cloudy Weather Option\u003c/em>: With a Bay Area forecast of cloudiness on Sunday evening and possible rain Monday morning, if you still want to see Geminids, check out the \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/NasaMeteorWatch/\">NASA Meteor Watch page\u003c/a>, where the shower will be live-streamed from a camera at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama from 5:00 p.m. Sunday evening to 1:00 a.m. Monday morning, PST.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Finding Dark Skies\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another factor that affects how many meteors you see is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">light pollution\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you live in or near a city, the light from cars, buildings, billboards, and streetlamps will reflect from particles in the atmosphere above, forming a pale glow to compete with the light of meteors, particularly the fainter ones.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though this won’t prevent you from enjoying the brighter meteors, it will subtract from the number you can see, so finding a place with dark skies, far away or sheltered from urban lights, will add to the experience.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/quest/155/dark-secrets\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here are\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> some ideas for good viewing places around the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where Do the Geminids Come From?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meteor showers happen when Earth passes through a trail of dust, usually left behind by a comet as it orbits close to the sun.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971301\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971301 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-800x516.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-768x495.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram shows the relationship between the dusty orbital path of a comet and the Earth’s orbit. When Earth passes through where the two orbits intersect, we can experience a meteor shower. In some cases, the same comet can produce two different meteor showers when the orbits intersect at two places. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Earth plows through the comet trail, the dust grains encounter our planet’s atmosphere at speeds of 20 or more miles per second and burn up in a flash. The meteor streaks you see are located 40 to 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. Meteor trails can be very bright and, because the dust grains travel so fast, the trails can be very long. But each meteor is only a small fleck of rock or metal, usually no larger than your fingernail.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unlike most showers, the Geminids’ dust trail was left behind by an asteroid, named \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/lunar/phaethon.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">3200 Phaeton\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 240px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971309 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/PIA22185-3200Phaeton-Arecibo-Observatory-NASA-NSF-2017.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A radio image sequence shows the rotation of the “rock comet” 3200 Phaeton, the parent asteroid of the Geminids meteor shower. These images were captured in 2017 when 3200 Phaeton, a 3.6-mile-long asteroid, came within 6.4 million miles of Earth. \u003ccite>(Arecibo Observatory/NASA/NSF)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This asteroid, of a variety sometimes called a “rock comet,” orbits the sun once every 1.4 years. When it gets close to the sun and is warmed by its rays, frozen volatile materials (mostly water ice) in the asteroid evaporate and blow off into space, carrying bits of dust.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Gone In a Flash\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As you wait for the thrill of the next meteor to cross the sky, think about this: that bit of rock or metal of each meteor spent the last five billion years or so drifting randomly around the solar system or riding inside a comet or asteroid. Then, flash! It’s gone. And you saw it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The annual Geminids meteor shower is on this month, and peaks on Monday morning, December 14, in a moonless sky. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the most spectacular meteor showers of the year, the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/meteors-and-meteorites/geminids/in-depth/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Geminids\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, will peak this year on Monday morning, Dec. 14, lavishing the skies with as many as 120 meteors every hour.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And this year, the absence of the moon means darker skies while you enjoy the “falling stars.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Good Meteor Watching\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If the weather is nice, cold December mornings often bring crystal clear skies, and this year the waning crescent moon will be gone most of the night, only appearing in the last moments before dawn as a thin sliver.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971308\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1971308\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-800x506.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"506\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-800x506.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-1020x646.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-160x101.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-768x486.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford-1536x972.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/parkcity-perseidmeteor-NASABill-Dunford.jpg 1776w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Perseid meteor, captured over Park City, Utah. \u003ccite>(NASA/Bill Dunford)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s simple math: abundant meteors, plus a clear dark night, minus the moonlight, equals the possibility of dazzling rewards!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How To Watch the Geminids\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">After midnight following Sunday evening, in the early morning hours of Monday, Dec. 14, find a good, safe place where you can set up a cot or roll out a blanket on the ground and look up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The meteors will appear to radiate from near \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://nineplanets.org/gemini-constellation/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gemini\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the Geminids’ namesake constellation. By 2 a.m., Gemini will be almost directly overhead, 85 degrees above the southern horizon. Look for the “twin” stars \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Mortals/Dioscuri/dioscuri.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Castor and Pollux\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a pair of equally bright stars set about five degrees apart, or the width of four fingers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971306 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium-800x696.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"696\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium-800x696.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium-160x139.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium-768x668.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/dec140200am-south-stellarium.jpg 924w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">View of the sky at 2 a.m. on Dec. 14. The radiant of the Geminids meteors (shown as red lines) is in the constellation Gemini, and will be almost directly overhead, and slightly to the south. \u003ccite>(Graphic made using Stellarium)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With your sights set high, lay back and relax as (You hope!) a multitude of meteors rain down around you. If conditions are good, you may see two or so each minute. Though their radiant point is in Gemini, the meteors can appear anywhere in the sky, so use your peripheral vision to catch as many as you can. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cloudy Weather Option\u003c/em>: With a Bay Area forecast of cloudiness on Sunday evening and possible rain Monday morning, if you still want to see Geminids, check out the \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/NasaMeteorWatch/\">NASA Meteor Watch page\u003c/a>, where the shower will be live-streamed from a camera at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama from 5:00 p.m. Sunday evening to 1:00 a.m. Monday morning, PST.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Finding Dark Skies\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another factor that affects how many meteors you see is \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">light pollution\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you live in or near a city, the light from cars, buildings, billboards, and streetlamps will reflect from particles in the atmosphere above, forming a pale glow to compete with the light of meteors, particularly the fainter ones.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Though this won’t prevent you from enjoying the brighter meteors, it will subtract from the number you can see, so finding a place with dark skies, far away or sheltered from urban lights, will add to the experience.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/quest/155/dark-secrets\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here are\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> some ideas for good viewing places around the Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Where Do the Geminids Come From?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meteor showers happen when Earth passes through a trail of dust, usually left behind by a comet as it orbits close to the sun.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971301\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971301 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-800x516.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-800x516.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa-768x495.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Comet_orbit.en-nasa.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram shows the relationship between the dusty orbital path of a comet and the Earth’s orbit. When Earth passes through where the two orbits intersect, we can experience a meteor shower. In some cases, the same comet can produce two different meteor showers when the orbits intersect at two places. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When Earth plows through the comet trail, the dust grains encounter our planet’s atmosphere at speeds of 20 or more miles per second and burn up in a flash. The meteor streaks you see are located 40 to 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. Meteor trails can be very bright and, because the dust grains travel so fast, the trails can be very long. But each meteor is only a small fleck of rock or metal, usually no larger than your fingernail.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Unlike most showers, the Geminids’ dust trail was left behind by an asteroid, named \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/lunar/phaethon.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">3200 Phaeton\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 240px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971309 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/PIA22185-3200Phaeton-Arecibo-Observatory-NASA-NSF-2017.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"240\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A radio image sequence shows the rotation of the “rock comet” 3200 Phaeton, the parent asteroid of the Geminids meteor shower. These images were captured in 2017 when 3200 Phaeton, a 3.6-mile-long asteroid, came within 6.4 million miles of Earth. \u003ccite>(Arecibo Observatory/NASA/NSF)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This asteroid, of a variety sometimes called a “rock comet,” orbits the sun once every 1.4 years. When it gets close to the sun and is warmed by its rays, frozen volatile materials (mostly water ice) in the asteroid evaporate and blow off into space, carrying bits of dust.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Gone In a Flash\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As you wait for the thrill of the next meteor to cross the sky, think about this: that bit of rock or metal of each meteor spent the last five billion years or so drifting randomly around the solar system or riding inside a comet or asteroid. Then, flash! It’s gone. And you saw it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Once-in-a-Lifetime Comet Is Visible Now in Pre-Dawn Sky",
"headTitle": "Once-in-a-Lifetime Comet Is Visible Now in Pre-Dawn Sky | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you thought 2020’s surprises were over, hold on. There’s one more winging toward us before we can finally close — and shred — this year’s calendar. But this one is a welcome surprise: a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/in-depth/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">comet\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you may be able to see with your own eyes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How to See the Comet\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Through the end of November, comet \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2020S3\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“C/2020 S3,” or Erasmus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, can be found low in the sky over the southeastern horizon in the hour or so before dawn. Though it is not very bright, and you may need a pair of binoculars to see it, you can use the bright nearby planet \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Venus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as a guide.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By about 5:30 a.m., Venus and Erasmus will have risen high enough above the horizon to spot, assuming there are no obstructions such as trees or buildings to your east. If you can see Venus above the skyline, then you have a shot at the comet. And Venus is hard to miss; it’s the brightest thing in the sky at this time — in fact, only the sun and moon are brighter than Venus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971173\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 792px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971173 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/comet-erasmus-nov23-stellarium.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"792\" height=\"530\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/comet-erasmus-nov23-stellarium.jpg 792w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/comet-erasmus-nov23-stellarium-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/comet-erasmus-nov23-stellarium-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 792px) 100vw, 792px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The positions of Venus, the bright star Spica (up and right from Venus), and Comet Erasmus (red crosshair) around Nov. 23. Over the days to follow, the comet will gradually move downward and to the left as it heads toward its close encounter with the sun on Dec. 12. \u003ccite>(Stellarium)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Facing southeast, start with Venus, and then look about 15 degrees to its right — about the width of your hand spread fully open, from thumb to pinky tip. That’s about where comet Erasmus will be.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you don’t see it with your eyes — \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">light pollution\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or haze can make this difficult — and if you have binoculars, try scanning the area with them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under good dark conditions, you should be able to spot a faint smudge of light like a cotton ball against the night sky. If you still can’t see it, relax your eyes a bit, and try \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/TTKReadyObserve.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">averting your gaze\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to either side. Your eyes are more sensitive to faint light when you look at something off center, indirectly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twilight will seep in as it gets closer to 6 a.m., and eventually the comet will become lost in the glow. With each passing night, as the comet approaches the sun, it will sink lower on the horizon, rising later and eventually departing the night sky completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Once In 2,500 Years\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">C/2020 S3 Erasmus was discovered on Sept. 17 by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cometografia.es/cometas-visibles/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nicolas Erasmus, from an observatory on Mauna Loa, Hawaii\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Since then it has been traveling closer to the sun, and will reach its nearest point, called perihelion, on Dec. 12, just inside the orbit of Mercury. We won’t see it then, since it will be on the far side of the sun and completely lost in the glare of daytime.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971187\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1971187\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/c2020s3erasmus.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/c2020s3erasmus.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/c2020s3erasmus-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/c2020s3erasmus-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram shows the orbit of comet C/2020 S3 Erasmus as it makes its closest approach to the sun on Dec. 12, after passing a comfortable distance away from Earth. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erasmus likely originated in the distant “halo” of dust, ice, and cometary bodies called the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oort Cloud\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which surrounds our solar system and extends halfway to the nearest star.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Estimates of Erasmus’ orbital period vary, but NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Dynamics system pegs it at 2,512 years, plus or minus 105 years. The uncertainty is not uncommon for long-period Oort Cloud comets with highly eccentric orbits — in any case, the chance of witnessing Erasmus’ passage is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Another Disaster for 2020\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In ancient times, comets were considered \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://phys.org/news/2013-11-comets-role-history-civilization.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">bad omens\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> foretelling cataclysmic events, the deaths of rulers, or other calamities. The word “disaster” comes from “dis,” a pejorative, and “astro,” star, or “bad star.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1971174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/great-comet-of-1680-Lieve-Verschuier.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"759\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/great-comet-of-1680-Lieve-Verschuier.jpg 759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/great-comet-of-1680-Lieve-Verschuier-160x126.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A painting of the Great Comet of 1680, at a time when comets were still seen as bad omens and portents of disaster. \u003ccite>(Lieve Verschuier)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Were a comet to collide with Earth — and they have in the past — it would certainly be a disaster, so maybe the ancients were onto something. Fortunately, Erasmus will not come close to Earth, and after December will be heading away, not to return for more than two thousand years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, relax. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Comet Erasmus last whirled by 2,500 years ago. You need to get up before the sun for this rare opportunity.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you thought 2020’s surprises were over, hold on. There’s one more winging toward us before we can finally close — and shred — this year’s calendar. But this one is a welcome surprise: a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/in-depth/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">comet\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you may be able to see with your own eyes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How to See the Comet\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Through the end of November, comet \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://astro.vanbuitenen.nl/comet/2020S3\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“C/2020 S3,” or Erasmus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, can be found low in the sky over the southeastern horizon in the hour or so before dawn. Though it is not very bright, and you may need a pair of binoculars to see it, you can use the bright nearby planet \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Venus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as a guide.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By about 5:30 a.m., Venus and Erasmus will have risen high enough above the horizon to spot, assuming there are no obstructions such as trees or buildings to your east. If you can see Venus above the skyline, then you have a shot at the comet. And Venus is hard to miss; it’s the brightest thing in the sky at this time — in fact, only the sun and moon are brighter than Venus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971173\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 792px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1971173 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/comet-erasmus-nov23-stellarium.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"792\" height=\"530\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/comet-erasmus-nov23-stellarium.jpg 792w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/comet-erasmus-nov23-stellarium-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/comet-erasmus-nov23-stellarium-768x514.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 792px) 100vw, 792px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The positions of Venus, the bright star Spica (up and right from Venus), and Comet Erasmus (red crosshair) around Nov. 23. Over the days to follow, the comet will gradually move downward and to the left as it heads toward its close encounter with the sun on Dec. 12. \u003ccite>(Stellarium)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Facing southeast, start with Venus, and then look about 15 degrees to its right — about the width of your hand spread fully open, from thumb to pinky tip. That’s about where comet Erasmus will be.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you don’t see it with your eyes — \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.darksky.org/light-pollution/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">light pollution\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or haze can make this difficult — and if you have binoculars, try scanning the area with them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Under good dark conditions, you should be able to spot a faint smudge of light like a cotton ball against the night sky. If you still can’t see it, relax your eyes a bit, and try \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/docs/TTKReadyObserve.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">averting your gaze\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to either side. Your eyes are more sensitive to faint light when you look at something off center, indirectly.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Twilight will seep in as it gets closer to 6 a.m., and eventually the comet will become lost in the glow. With each passing night, as the comet approaches the sun, it will sink lower on the horizon, rising later and eventually departing the night sky completely.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Once In 2,500 Years\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">C/2020 S3 Erasmus was discovered on Sept. 17 by \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cometografia.es/cometas-visibles/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nicolas Erasmus, from an observatory on Mauna Loa, Hawaii\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Since then it has been traveling closer to the sun, and will reach its nearest point, called perihelion, on Dec. 12, just inside the orbit of Mercury. We won’t see it then, since it will be on the far side of the sun and completely lost in the glare of daytime.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971187\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1971187\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/c2020s3erasmus.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/c2020s3erasmus.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/c2020s3erasmus-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/c2020s3erasmus-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram shows the orbit of comet C/2020 S3 Erasmus as it makes its closest approach to the sun on Dec. 12, after passing a comfortable distance away from Earth. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Erasmus likely originated in the distant “halo” of dust, ice, and cometary bodies called the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oort Cloud\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, which surrounds our solar system and extends halfway to the nearest star.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Estimates of Erasmus’ orbital period vary, but NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Dynamics system pegs it at 2,512 years, plus or minus 105 years. The uncertainty is not uncommon for long-period Oort Cloud comets with highly eccentric orbits — in any case, the chance of witnessing Erasmus’ passage is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Another Disaster for 2020\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In ancient times, comets were considered \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://phys.org/news/2013-11-comets-role-history-civilization.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">bad omens\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> foretelling cataclysmic events, the deaths of rulers, or other calamities. The word “disaster” comes from “dis,” a pejorative, and “astro,” star, or “bad star.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1971174\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 759px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1971174\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/great-comet-of-1680-Lieve-Verschuier.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"759\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/great-comet-of-1680-Lieve-Verschuier.jpg 759w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/great-comet-of-1680-Lieve-Verschuier-160x126.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 759px) 100vw, 759px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A painting of the Great Comet of 1680, at a time when comets were still seen as bad omens and portents of disaster. \u003ccite>(Lieve Verschuier)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Were a comet to collide with Earth — and they have in the past — it would certainly be a disaster, so maybe the ancients were onto something. Fortunately, Erasmus will not come close to Earth, and after December will be heading away, not to return for more than two thousand years.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, relax. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NASA's Artemis Missions to Set Up Base Camp on the Moon",
"headTitle": "NASA’s Artemis Missions to Set Up Base Camp on the Moon | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://best-sci-fi-books.com/17-best-science-fiction-books-about-the-moon/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Science fiction\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has long imagined possibilities of human adventure on the moon, envisioning lunar expeditions, bases, and even cities in the decades leading up to the first Apollo landings. Now, NASA is taking steps to reboot that adventure. The Artemis missions will send men and women to the moon to establish a moon base and test out a long-term lunar residency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first three missions of NASA’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artemis program\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are set to land the next man and the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-publishes-artemis-plan-to-land-first-woman-next-man-on-moon-in-2024/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">first woman on the moon by 2024\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 48 years since the last Apollo moon landing, astronauts have traveled only 200-300 miles above Earth’s surface — to the International Space Station and other near-Earth ventures. Many people alive today have not experienced something like this in their lifetimes — including the younger generation of astronauts who are going there!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But this is only the beginning of an expanding human presence on the moon. Unlike the fleeting there-and-back-again trips of the Apollo missions half a century ago, NASA’s new engagement with the moon will include a permanent lunar space station, numerous and ever-longer excursions to the moon’s surface, and ultimately partially \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-outlines-lunar-surface-sustainability-concept\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">self-sustaining habitations for astronauts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970848\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 777px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970848\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Space-Launch-System-in-Flight-777x555-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"777\" height=\"555\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Space-Launch-System-in-Flight-777x555-1.jpg 777w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Space-Launch-System-in-Flight-777x555-1-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Space-Launch-System-in-Flight-777x555-1-768x549.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 777px) 100vw, 777px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket will send heavy payloads\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> — \u003c/span>like components of the Lunar Gateway orbital station and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> — \u003c/span>to the moon during missions of the Artemis program. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taking up residence on the moon isn’t NASA’s only goal. The agency’s sights are set much farther out on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars/getting-there\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">human expeditions to the planet Mars.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A big part of the plan is to learn from the experience of living and working at the moon.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First Artemis Flights\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA plans to launch the uncrewed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artemis I\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mission in November 2021 to test the spacecraft that will carry astronauts on subsequent missions. The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Space Launch System\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (SLS) heavy-lift launch rocket and the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ivv/jstar/jstar_ompcv.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are both brand new technology, and need to be proven on an actual moon flight before the first crewed mission. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2023, Artemis II will carry four astronauts on a weeklong trip around the moon. Like the first human voyage to the moon in 1968 in Apollo 8, Artemis II will make no landing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, Artemis III makes history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With a planned launch in October 2024, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/05/Artemis_3_step-by-step\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artemis III \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will land its woman and man astronaut team near the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/moon-s-south-pole-in-nasa-s-landing-sites\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">moon’s south pole\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a region where, in 2008, satellites confirmed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">water ice exists\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. One of Artemis III’s top priorities is to investigate exactly where polar water can be found, and how much there is. Water is a commodity far more valuable than gold to future moon-dwelling humans; it’s a source of water to drink, oxygen to breathe, and the chemical components for electric fuel cells and rocket fuel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What Does Human Residence on the Moon Look Like?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the SLS and Orion spacecraft test out as a reliable system to ferry astronauts to and from the moon, the next step on our return will be to place the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/in-lunar-orbit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lunar Gateway\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> space station into orbit around the moon. The Gateway will be a home and workplace for moon-going astronauts, like a smaller version of the International Space Station. Gateway will be a platform for conducting scientific research and testing new technologies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970844\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970844 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist concept of NASA’s Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Orion, left preparing to dock with the Lunar Gateway orbiting the moon. The Gateway will serve as waystation for spacecraft coming and going from Earth, a home base for astronauts to live and work, and a command center for excursion to the moon’s surface. Over time, Gateway’s living space and life support capacity will be expanded to enable ever-longer human visits. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most importantly, Gateway will be a waystation: a meet-up point for Orion spacecraft coming and going from Earth, and a service station and dock for \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-human-lunar-lander-companies-complete-key-artemis-milestone\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lunar landing vehicles\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Artemis III and its crew of four arrive in lunar orbit, Lunar Gateway will already be waiting for them, along with the landing vehicle that will carry two of the crew to the surface. The landing crew will spend almost seven days on the moon, more than twice the stay of Apollo 17, the longest Apollo visit. The other two astronauts will remain in orbit on the Gateway and the docked Orion spacecraft.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Advance surveys by a robotic rover, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/viper-rover-will-get-driving-headlights\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VIPER\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and an orbital \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/lunar_flashlight.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CubeSat \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will help choose Artemis III’s landing site by finding and sampling deposits of water ice. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970846\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1970846\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Before human astronauts walk on the moon’s south pole, robotic expeditions made by vehicles like NASA’s VIPER rover will scout ahead looking for precious resources like water ice, which is known to exist in permanently shadowed areas of the moon’s polar region. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the astronauts arrive at the south pole, they will find a lunar rover vehicle waiting for them, similar to the electric, golf-cart-like vehicles used by later Apollo missions. The rover will be able to take astronauts on excursions of up to nine miles from the landing site. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During their weeklong stay near the moon’s south pole, the astronauts will run scientific experiments and collect samples, including water ice. Of particular interest to explore are permanently shadowed polar craters and valleys where water ice is protected from the sun’s direct rays. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Building Capacity For Longer Stays\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Missions to follow the 2024 landing will feature ever longer visits to the Gateway and the moon’s surface.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970903\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970903 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A visualization of the 13-mile wide Shackleton Crater near the moon’s south pole. The high rim and peaks surrounding the crater are bathed in almost constantly in sunlight, offering ideal sites for generating solar power. The deep crater floor lies in perpetual shadow, and is likely a cold trap where water ice has accumulated over time — a frozen reservoir of the precious commodity. \u003ccite>(NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2020/10/28/lunar-living-nasas-artemis-base-camp-concept/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artemis Base Camp\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">” will be established at a yet-to-be-chosen site; one candidate is Shackleton Crater. Conceived as a home base for expeditions into the surrounding terrain, Base Camp will feature a “Lunar Foundation Surface Habitat” of semi-permanent human dwellings — or “cabins” — and materials, supplies, and other equipment to maintain the base and service outbound explorations across the moon’s surface.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lunar Terrain Vehicles, like the one Artemis III will use, will extend the astronauts’ reach traveling the landscape. The vehicles will also be operated remotely from Base Camp or even Lunar Gateway orbiting above, turning them into robotic exploration rovers and payload transportation vehicles. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 306px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/HMP-nasa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"306\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/HMP-nasa.jpg 306w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/HMP-nasa-160x95.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 306px) 100vw, 306px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of the Habitable Mobility Platform, a pressurized lunar roving vehicle that can carry a crew of four on long trips of up to 45 days. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Base Camp may eventually service a Habitable Mobility Platform: a large, pressurized rover that can support a crew of four for up to 45 days, carrying them on long expeditions of discovery. Think of the rover from the film, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Martian\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This may all sound very far off or fictional, but actually, this future is almost here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Practice For a Much Farther Journey?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The immediate goals of the Artemis program are to investigate the moon and assess its resources for supporting long-term, sustained human habitation. But NASA has grander plans: use the Gateway and lander vehicle systems to practice for a human voyage to Mars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970845\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970845 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-2048x1151.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-1920x1079.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram illustrates NASA’s plan to use the moon and the vehicles of the Artemis program as a testing and training dress rehearsal for an eventual human mission to Mars. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea is to send astronauts on multi-month stays to the Gateway to simulate the voyages to and from Mars, with a long stay on the lunar surface as a dress rehearsal for an actual landing on the Red Planet. Such a demonstration using real spacecraft, a real timeline, and a real away-from-Earth practice venue will show us how the actual voyage to and landing on Mars can play out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though we already know how to send spacecraft to Mars, how long it takes to get there, and how to land on its surface, our lunar proving ground can offer us practical experience for what Mars-bound astronauts will have to endure, and what skills and tools they will need to take them there and home again — maybe as soon as the early 2030s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "One of the astronauts on NASA's next moon landing will be the first woman to land on the moon. NASA's Artemis missions will establish a lunar residency and help plan outbound voyages to Mars.",
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"description": "One of the astronauts on NASA's next moon landing will be the first woman to land on the moon. NASA's Artemis missions will establish a lunar residency and help plan outbound voyages to Mars.",
"title": "NASA's Artemis Missions to Set Up Base Camp on the Moon | KQED",
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"headline": "NASA's Artemis Missions to Set Up Base Camp on the Moon",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://best-sci-fi-books.com/17-best-science-fiction-books-about-the-moon/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Science fiction\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has long imagined possibilities of human adventure on the moon, envisioning lunar expeditions, bases, and even cities in the decades leading up to the first Apollo landings. Now, NASA is taking steps to reboot that adventure. The Artemis missions will send men and women to the moon to establish a moon base and test out a long-term lunar residency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first three missions of NASA’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artemis program\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are set to land the next man and the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-publishes-artemis-plan-to-land-first-woman-next-man-on-moon-in-2024/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">first woman on the moon by 2024\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 48 years since the last Apollo moon landing, astronauts have traveled only 200-300 miles above Earth’s surface — to the International Space Station and other near-Earth ventures. Many people alive today have not experienced something like this in their lifetimes — including the younger generation of astronauts who are going there!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But this is only the beginning of an expanding human presence on the moon. Unlike the fleeting there-and-back-again trips of the Apollo missions half a century ago, NASA’s new engagement with the moon will include a permanent lunar space station, numerous and ever-longer excursions to the moon’s surface, and ultimately partially \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-outlines-lunar-surface-sustainability-concept\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">self-sustaining habitations for astronauts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970848\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 777px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970848\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Space-Launch-System-in-Flight-777x555-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"777\" height=\"555\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Space-Launch-System-in-Flight-777x555-1.jpg 777w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Space-Launch-System-in-Flight-777x555-1-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/Space-Launch-System-in-Flight-777x555-1-768x549.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 777px) 100vw, 777px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA’s Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket will send heavy payloads\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> — \u003c/span>like components of the Lunar Gateway orbital station and the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> — \u003c/span>to the moon during missions of the Artemis program. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Taking up residence on the moon isn’t NASA’s only goal. The agency’s sights are set much farther out on \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars/getting-there\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">human expeditions to the planet Mars.\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> A big part of the plan is to learn from the experience of living and working at the moon.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>First Artemis Flights\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">NASA plans to launch the uncrewed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-1\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artemis I\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> mission in November 2021 to test the spacecraft that will carry astronauts on subsequent missions. The \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Space Launch System\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (SLS) heavy-lift launch rocket and the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ivv/jstar/jstar_ompcv.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are both brand new technology, and need to be proven on an actual moon flight before the first crewed mission. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2023, Artemis II will carry four astronauts on a weeklong trip around the moon. Like the first human voyage to the moon in 1968 in Apollo 8, Artemis II will make no landing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then, Artemis III makes history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With a planned launch in October 2024, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2020/05/Artemis_3_step-by-step\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artemis III \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will land its woman and man astronaut team near the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/moon-s-south-pole-in-nasa-s-landing-sites\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">moon’s south pole\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a region where, in 2008, satellites confirmed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LCROSS/main/prelim_water_results.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">water ice exists\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. One of Artemis III’s top priorities is to investigate exactly where polar water can be found, and how much there is. Water is a commodity far more valuable than gold to future moon-dwelling humans; it’s a source of water to drink, oxygen to breathe, and the chemical components for electric fuel cells and rocket fuel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What Does Human Residence on the Moon Look Like?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the SLS and Orion spacecraft test out as a reliable system to ferry astronauts to and from the moon, the next step on our return will be to place the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/in-lunar-orbit\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lunar Gateway\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> space station into orbit around the moon. The Gateway will be a home and workplace for moon-going astronauts, like a smaller version of the International Space Station. Gateway will be a platform for conducting scientific research and testing new technologies.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970844\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970844 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/lunargateway-and-orion-nasa.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist concept of NASA’s Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle Orion, left preparing to dock with the Lunar Gateway orbiting the moon. The Gateway will serve as waystation for spacecraft coming and going from Earth, a home base for astronauts to live and work, and a command center for excursion to the moon’s surface. Over time, Gateway’s living space and life support capacity will be expanded to enable ever-longer human visits. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most importantly, Gateway will be a waystation: a meet-up point for Orion spacecraft coming and going from Earth, and a service station and dock for \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-human-lunar-lander-companies-complete-key-artemis-milestone\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lunar landing vehicles\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Artemis III and its crew of four arrive in lunar orbit, Lunar Gateway will already be waiting for them, along with the landing vehicle that will carry two of the crew to the surface. The landing crew will spend almost seven days on the moon, more than twice the stay of Apollo 17, the longest Apollo visit. The other two astronauts will remain in orbit on the Gateway and the docked Orion spacecraft.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Advance surveys by a robotic rover, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/viper-rover-will-get-driving-headlights\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">VIPER\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and an orbital \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/lunar_flashlight.php\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CubeSat \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will help choose Artemis III’s landing site by finding and sampling deposits of water ice. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970846\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1970846\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/nasa-vipre_16x9.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Before human astronauts walk on the moon’s south pole, robotic expeditions made by vehicles like NASA’s VIPER rover will scout ahead looking for precious resources like water ice, which is known to exist in permanently shadowed areas of the moon’s polar region. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When the astronauts arrive at the south pole, they will find a lunar rover vehicle waiting for them, similar to the electric, golf-cart-like vehicles used by later Apollo missions. The rover will be able to take astronauts on excursions of up to nine miles from the landing site. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During their weeklong stay near the moon’s south pole, the astronauts will run scientific experiments and collect samples, including water ice. Of particular interest to explore are permanently shadowed polar craters and valleys where water ice is protected from the sun’s direct rays. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Building Capacity For Longer Stays\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Missions to follow the 2024 landing will feature ever longer visits to the Gateway and the moon’s surface.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970903\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970903 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/shakleton-crater.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A visualization of the 13-mile wide Shackleton Crater near the moon’s south pole. The high rim and peaks surrounding the crater are bathed in almost constantly in sunlight, offering ideal sites for generating solar power. The deep crater floor lies in perpetual shadow, and is likely a cold trap where water ice has accumulated over time — a frozen reservoir of the precious commodity. \u003ccite>(NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/2020/10/28/lunar-living-nasas-artemis-base-camp-concept/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Artemis Base Camp\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">” will be established at a yet-to-be-chosen site; one candidate is Shackleton Crater. Conceived as a home base for expeditions into the surrounding terrain, Base Camp will feature a “Lunar Foundation Surface Habitat” of semi-permanent human dwellings — or “cabins” — and materials, supplies, and other equipment to maintain the base and service outbound explorations across the moon’s surface.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lunar Terrain Vehicles, like the one Artemis III will use, will extend the astronauts’ reach traveling the landscape. The vehicles will also be operated remotely from Base Camp or even Lunar Gateway orbiting above, turning them into robotic exploration rovers and payload transportation vehicles. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 306px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/HMP-nasa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"306\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/HMP-nasa.jpg 306w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/HMP-nasa-160x95.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 306px) 100vw, 306px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of the Habitable Mobility Platform, a pressurized lunar roving vehicle that can carry a crew of four on long trips of up to 45 days. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Base Camp may eventually service a Habitable Mobility Platform: a large, pressurized rover that can support a crew of four for up to 45 days, carrying them on long expeditions of discovery. Think of the rover from the film, “\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Martian\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This may all sound very far off or fictional, but actually, this future is almost here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Practice For a Much Farther Journey?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The immediate goals of the Artemis program are to investigate the moon and assess its resources for supporting long-term, sustained human habitation. But NASA has grander plans: use the Gateway and lander vehicle systems to practice for a human voyage to Mars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970845\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970845 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-1536x863.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-2048x1151.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/moon-to-mars-rehearsal-nasa-1920x1079.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram illustrates NASA’s plan to use the moon and the vehicles of the Artemis program as a testing and training dress rehearsal for an eventual human mission to Mars. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea is to send astronauts on multi-month stays to the Gateway to simulate the voyages to and from Mars, with a long stay on the lunar surface as a dress rehearsal for an actual landing on the Red Planet. Such a demonstration using real spacecraft, a real timeline, and a real away-from-Earth practice venue will show us how the actual voyage to and landing on Mars can play out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though we already know how to send spacecraft to Mars, how long it takes to get there, and how to land on its surface, our lunar proving ground can offer us practical experience for what Mars-bound astronauts will have to endure, and what skills and tools they will need to take them there and home again — maybe as soon as the early 2030s. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NASA Spacecraft Spots a Massive, Ancient Planet With a Knack for Survival",
"headTitle": "NASA Spacecraft Spots a Massive, Ancient Planet With a Knack for Survival | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A NASA satellite known as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/about-tess\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">TESS\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> may have discovered a massive extrasolar planet twice as old as any planet in our solar system. While astronomers need to conduct more observations to confirm the planet exists, this \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7746\">gas giant world\u003c/a>, named WD 1856 b and located 80 light years away in the constellation Draco, appears to be 14 times more massive than Jupiter, and around 10 billion years old. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">WD 1856 b\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s size and age are not what make it most fascinating to scientists. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970221\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970221 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of NASA’s TESS spacecraft, featuring its four large, shielded cameras that will survey the entire sky during its prime mission in search of nearby extrasolar planets. NASA launched TESS in 2018, and plan to search for exoplanets orbiting 200,000 stars near our solar system. \u003ccite>(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Meaney)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The planet orbits a type of object called a white dwarf, the tiny and dense remnant core of a dead star, and that orbit is so close in that WD 1856 b completes it in a mere 34 hours (compared to 365 days for Earth to orbit our sun). \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists want to know how the planet escaped the tumultuous death throes of its star, a process that destroys all nearby planets. They are also puzzled by how it has survived the powerful gravitational forces of a white dwarf star at close range, which should tear it to shreds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How Does a White Dwarf Star Form?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During its lifetime, the star that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/dwarfs2.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">became this white dwarf \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was probably not unlike our sun in size and mass. It may also have nurtured its own family of planets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when a sun-sized star begins to run out of fuel, it goes through some drastic changes. Its core, sputtering on fumes and losing the power of nuclear fusion that kept it stable for billions of years, begins to collapse and heats up intensely as gravity squeezes it into a small, dense, compact object not much larger than a planet like Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, the escalating temperature of the white-hot core inflates the outer layers of the star like a balloon. The gases cool as they spread out, and the once sun-like star becomes a “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/learn/astro/stars/cycle/redgiant\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">red giant\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” hundreds of times larger and engulfing any planets orbiting too close. When our sun goes through this phase, some 5 to 7 billion years in the future, its outer layers will expand beyond the orbits of Mercury and Venus, and possibly even Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970210\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/Helix-Hubble.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/Helix-Hubble.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/Helix-Hubble-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/Helix-Hubble-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Helix nebula, the expanding cloud of gases cast off by a star that has ended the red giant phase after running out of fuel. A so-called “planetary” nebula, named for the round, planet-like shape it presents. At the center is found the tiny dot of the demised star’s remnant core, now a collapsed object called a white dwarf. This is a composite of images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation’s 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. \u003ccite>(NASA/NOAO/ESA/M. Meixner-STScI/T.A. Rector-NRAO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the red giant phase of the star’s demise draws to a close, its outer layers of gas blow off into space as an ever-expanding cloud, becoming a beautiful object called a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.noao.edu/jacoby/pn_gallery.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">planetary nebula\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This Planet Might Have Migrated\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists believe that WD 1856 b must have been farther away from its star to begin with, only moving to its present position after the star’s red giant phase was over.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The idea that planets and smaller bodies can migrate from one place to another within a star system can help explain details of a planet’s composition that are not consistent with its current location —indicators that it formed in a different location under different conditions. The theory of planetary migration may solve \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blog.planethunters.org/2014/05/09/the-role-of-planetary-migration-in-the-evolution-of-the-solar-system/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">planetary puzzles in our solar system\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as well as in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/kepler-223-system-clues-to-planetary-migration\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">other star systems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970223 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-800x409.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"409\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-800x409.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-1020x522.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-768x393.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist concept of a red giant star that has turned up the heat on one of its nearby planets. When our sun becomes a red giant in a few billion years, it will likely expand beyond Mercury and Venus, destroying them, and burn the Earth’s surface to a hellish crisp — possibly even enveloping our planet as well. \u003ccite>(ESO/L. Calçada)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With several possibilities to choose from, scientists think WD 1856 b moved to its current location through gravitational interactions between it and one or more other gas giant planets, which have yet to be discovered.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Why Wasn’t This Exoplanet Ripped to Shreds?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another puzzling question is how WD 1856 b has remained intact so close to the small, but massive white dwarf, rather than being \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/white-dwarf-may-have-shredded-passing-planet.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ripped to shreds by gravitational tidal forces\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Tidal force” is the difference in gravitational pull that one body exerts on the near and the far sides of another body.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earth experiences “tides” because the gravitational pull of the moon (and, to a lesser degree, the sun) is stronger on the side of Earth facing the moon than on the far side, exerting a gentle stretching action that pulls at Earth and the ocean’s waters along that direction. At a quarter of a million miles, the moon’s modest gravity draws the ocean’s waters several feet above the norm. We experience this as the rise and fall of the tides, as Earth’s surface rotates through the swell.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the equivalent mass of a sun-sized star packed into a ball only a bit larger than Earth, the white dwarf’s gravity grows immensely powerful at close range, and the tidal forces on any nearby planet become enormous. In the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://science.howstuffworks.com/white-dwarfs-shred-planets.htm\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tidal tearing action of a white dwarf star,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">if a planet is too close, it will literally be stretched apart and shredded to pieces. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970222 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist illustration of a white dwarf star surrounded by a disk of debris from objects (planets, the asteroid in the foreground) that wander too close and are ripped apart by gravitational tidal forces. \u003ccite>(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Observations of other white dwarf systems have sometimes revealed encircling disks of dust, possible evidence of planets that have wandered too close and been stretched to smithereens. The rings of Saturn, it is believed, were formed when a small moon got too close to Saturn and was broken apart by the tidal forces of the planet’s gravity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">However WD 1856 b is managing to keep it together, it seems that this “lucky” world has dodged two epic obliterations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "NASA has spotted an exoplanet twice as old as Earth and 14 times more massive than Jupiter. But there's something even weirder about this planet.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A NASA satellite known as \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/content/about-tess\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">TESS\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> may have discovered a massive extrasolar planet twice as old as any planet in our solar system. While astronomers need to conduct more observations to confirm the planet exists, this \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7746\">gas giant world\u003c/a>, named WD 1856 b and located 80 light years away in the constellation Draco, appears to be 14 times more massive than Jupiter, and around 10 billion years old. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">WD 1856 b\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">’s size and age are not what make it most fascinating to scientists. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970221\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970221 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/tess_starfield_still-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration of NASA’s TESS spacecraft, featuring its four large, shielded cameras that will survey the entire sky during its prime mission in search of nearby extrasolar planets. NASA launched TESS in 2018, and plan to search for exoplanets orbiting 200,000 stars near our solar system. \u003ccite>(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Meaney)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The planet orbits a type of object called a white dwarf, the tiny and dense remnant core of a dead star, and that orbit is so close in that WD 1856 b completes it in a mere 34 hours (compared to 365 days for Earth to orbit our sun). \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists want to know how the planet escaped the tumultuous death throes of its star, a process that destroys all nearby planets. They are also puzzled by how it has survived the powerful gravitational forces of a white dwarf star at close range, which should tear it to shreds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>How Does a White Dwarf Star Form?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During its lifetime, the star that \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/dwarfs2.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">became this white dwarf \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">was probably not unlike our sun in size and mass. It may also have nurtured its own family of planets.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But when a sun-sized star begins to run out of fuel, it goes through some drastic changes. Its core, sputtering on fumes and losing the power of nuclear fusion that kept it stable for billions of years, begins to collapse and heats up intensely as gravity squeezes it into a small, dense, compact object not much larger than a planet like Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, the escalating temperature of the white-hot core inflates the outer layers of the star like a balloon. The gases cool as they spread out, and the once sun-like star becomes a “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/learn/astro/stars/cycle/redgiant\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">red giant\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">” hundreds of times larger and engulfing any planets orbiting too close. When our sun goes through this phase, some 5 to 7 billion years in the future, its outer layers will expand beyond the orbits of Mercury and Venus, and possibly even Earth.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970210\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1970210\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/Helix-Hubble.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/Helix-Hubble.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/Helix-Hubble-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/Helix-Hubble-768x768.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Helix nebula, the expanding cloud of gases cast off by a star that has ended the red giant phase after running out of fuel. A so-called “planetary” nebula, named for the round, planet-like shape it presents. At the center is found the tiny dot of the demised star’s remnant core, now a collapsed object called a white dwarf. This is a composite of images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation’s 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. \u003ccite>(NASA/NOAO/ESA/M. Meixner-STScI/T.A. Rector-NRAO)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As the red giant phase of the star’s demise draws to a close, its outer layers of gas blow off into space as an ever-expanding cloud, becoming a beautiful object called a \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.noao.edu/jacoby/pn_gallery.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">planetary nebula\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This Planet Might Have Migrated\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists believe that WD 1856 b must have been farther away from its star to begin with, only moving to its present position after the star’s red giant phase was over.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The idea that planets and smaller bodies can migrate from one place to another within a star system can help explain details of a planet’s composition that are not consistent with its current location —indicators that it formed in a different location under different conditions. The theory of planetary migration may solve \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://blog.planethunters.org/2014/05/09/the-role-of-planetary-migration-in-the-evolution-of-the-solar-system/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">planetary puzzles in our solar system\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> as well as in \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/kepler-223-system-clues-to-planetary-migration\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">other star systems\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970223\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970223 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-800x409.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"409\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-800x409.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-1020x522.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280-768x393.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/1349_CoRoT-7b1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist concept of a red giant star that has turned up the heat on one of its nearby planets. When our sun becomes a red giant in a few billion years, it will likely expand beyond Mercury and Venus, destroying them, and burn the Earth’s surface to a hellish crisp — possibly even enveloping our planet as well. \u003ccite>(ESO/L. Calçada)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With several possibilities to choose from, scientists think WD 1856 b moved to its current location through gravitational interactions between it and one or more other gas giant planets, which have yet to be discovered.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Why Wasn’t This Exoplanet Ripped to Shreds?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Another puzzling question is how WD 1856 b has remained intact so close to the small, but massive white dwarf, rather than being \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/white-dwarf-may-have-shredded-passing-planet.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">ripped to shreds by gravitational tidal forces\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Tidal force” is the difference in gravitational pull that one body exerts on the near and the far sides of another body.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Earth experiences “tides” because the gravitational pull of the moon (and, to a lesser degree, the sun) is stronger on the side of Earth facing the moon than on the far side, exerting a gentle stretching action that pulls at Earth and the ocean’s waters along that direction. At a quarter of a million miles, the moon’s modest gravity draws the ocean’s waters several feet above the norm. We experience this as the rise and fall of the tides, as Earth’s surface rotates through the swell.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the equivalent mass of a sun-sized star packed into a ball only a bit larger than Earth, the white dwarf’s gravity grows immensely powerful at close range, and the tidal forces on any nearby planet become enormous. In the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://science.howstuffworks.com/white-dwarfs-shred-planets.htm\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">tidal tearing action of a white dwarf star,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">if a planet is too close, it will literally be stretched apart and shredded to pieces. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1970222\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1970222 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-2048x1152.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/10/white_dwarf_disk_final-1920x1080.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist illustration of a white dwarf star surrounded by a disk of debris from objects (planets, the asteroid in the foreground) that wander too close and are ripped apart by gravitational tidal forces. \u003ccite>(NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Observations of other white dwarf systems have sometimes revealed encircling disks of dust, possible evidence of planets that have wandered too close and been stretched to smithereens. The rings of Saturn, it is believed, were formed when a small moon got too close to Saturn and was broken apart by the tidal forces of the planet’s gravity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">However WD 1856 b is managing to keep it together, it seems that this “lucky” world has dodged two epic obliterations.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "UC Scientists Win Nobel Physics Prize for Black Hole Research",
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"content": "\u003cp>Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for advancing our understanding of black holes, the all-consuming monsters that lurk in the darkest parts of the universe and still confound astronomers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the United States explained to the world these dead ends of the cosmos that devour light and even time. Staples of both science fact and fiction, black holes are still not completely understood, but are deeply connected, somehow, to the creation of galaxies, where the stars and life exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Penrose, of the University of Oxford, received half of the prize for discovering that Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts the formation of black holes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Genzel, who is at both the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the UC Berkeley, and Ghez, of UCLA, received the other half of the prize for discovering a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prize celebrates what the Nobel Committee called “one of the most exotic objects in the universe” and ones that “still pose many questions that beg for answers and motivate future research.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=5JFKNDVmx6k&feature=emb_logo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Black holes are at the center of every galaxy, and smaller ones are dotted around the universe. Just their existence is mind-bending, taking what people experience every day on Earth — light and time — and warping them in such a way that seems unreal. Time slows and even stops in black holes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Black holes, because they are so hard to understand, is what makes them so appealing,” Ghez, 55, told The Associated Press after becoming the fourth woman ever to win the Nobel in physics. “I really think of science as a big, giant puzzle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Penrose, 89, proved with mathematics in 1964 that the formation of black holes was possible, based heavily on Einstein’s general theory of relativity, even though Einstein himself didn’t think they existed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Penrose, a mathematical physicist who got the call from the Nobel Committee while in the shower, was surprised at his winning because his work is more theoretical than observational, and that’s not usually what wins physics Nobels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What fascinated Penrose more than the black hole was what was at the other end of it, something called a “singularity.” It’s something science still can’t figure out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Singularity, that’s a place where the densities and curvatures go to infinity. You expect the physics go crazy,” he said from his home. “When I say singularity, that’s not really the black hole. The black hole prevents you from seeing the singularity. It’s the nasty thing in the middle. If you fall into a black hole, then you pretty well inevitably get squashed into this singularity at the end. And that’s the end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Penrose said he was trying to figure this out using math while walking to work with a colleague 56 years ago, thinking about “what it would be like to be in this situation where all this material is collapsing around you.” He realized he had “some strange feeling of elation,” and that was when things started coming together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martin Rees, the British astronomer royal, noted that Penrose triggered a “renaissance” in the study of relativity in the 1960s, and that, together with a young Stephen Hawking, he helped firm up evidence for the Big Bang and black holes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Penrose and Hawking are the two individuals who have done more than anyone else since Einstein to deepen our knowledge of gravity,” Rees said. “Sadly, this award was too much delayed to allow Hawking to share the credit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawking died in 2018, and Nobel Prizes are awarded only to the living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Genzel, 68, and Ghez won because “they showed that black holes are not just theory — they’re real, they’re here, and there’s a monster-size black hole in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way,” said Brian Greene, a theoretical physicist and mathematician at Columbia University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1990s, Genzel and Ghez, leading separate groups of astronomers, trained their sights on the dust-covered center of our Milky Way galaxy, a region called Sagittarius A(asterisk), where something strange was going on. It was “an extremely heavy, invisible object that pulls on the jumble of stars, causing them to rush around at dizzying speeds,” according to the Nobel Committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a black hole. Not just an ordinary black hole, but a supermassive one, 4 million times the mass of our sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first image Ghez got was in 1995, using the Keck Telescope in Hawaii that had just gone online. A year later, another image seemed to indicate that the stars near the center of the Milky Way were circling something. A third image led Ghez and Genzel to think they were really on to something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A fierce competition developed between Ghez and Genzel, whose team was using an array of telescopes at the European Southern Observatory in Chile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their rivalry elevated them to greater scientific heights,” said Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike with other achievements honored with Nobels, there is no practical application for these discoveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is there a practical application to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony?” Columbia’s Greene asked. “But its existence, this type of spectacular knowledge, is part of what gives life meaning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nobel comes with a gold medal and 10 million kronor (more than $1.1 million), courtesy of a bequest left 124 years ago by the prize’s creator, Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, the Nobel in medicine was awarded to Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice and British-born scientist Michael Houghton for discovering the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prizes for chemistry, literature, peace and economics will be announced in the coming days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Reinhard Genzel of UC Berkeley and Andrea Ghez of UCLA received the prize for discovering a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. The UK's Roger Penrose also shared the prize for discovering that Einstein's theory of relativity predicts black hole formation.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for advancing our understanding of black holes, the all-consuming monsters that lurk in the darkest parts of the universe and still confound astronomers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roger Penrose of Britain, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and Andrea Ghez of the United States explained to the world these dead ends of the cosmos that devour light and even time. Staples of both science fact and fiction, black holes are still not completely understood, but are deeply connected, somehow, to the creation of galaxies, where the stars and life exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Penrose, of the University of Oxford, received half of the prize for discovering that Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts the formation of black holes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Genzel, who is at both the Max Planck Institute in Germany and the UC Berkeley, and Ghez, of UCLA, received the other half of the prize for discovering a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prize celebrates what the Nobel Committee called “one of the most exotic objects in the universe” and ones that “still pose many questions that beg for answers and motivate future research.”\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/5JFKNDVmx6k'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/5JFKNDVmx6k'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Black holes are at the center of every galaxy, and smaller ones are dotted around the universe. Just their existence is mind-bending, taking what people experience every day on Earth — light and time — and warping them in such a way that seems unreal. Time slows and even stops in black holes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Black holes, because they are so hard to understand, is what makes them so appealing,” Ghez, 55, told The Associated Press after becoming the fourth woman ever to win the Nobel in physics. “I really think of science as a big, giant puzzle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Penrose, 89, proved with mathematics in 1964 that the formation of black holes was possible, based heavily on Einstein’s general theory of relativity, even though Einstein himself didn’t think they existed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Penrose, a mathematical physicist who got the call from the Nobel Committee while in the shower, was surprised at his winning because his work is more theoretical than observational, and that’s not usually what wins physics Nobels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What fascinated Penrose more than the black hole was what was at the other end of it, something called a “singularity.” It’s something science still can’t figure out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Singularity, that’s a place where the densities and curvatures go to infinity. You expect the physics go crazy,” he said from his home. “When I say singularity, that’s not really the black hole. The black hole prevents you from seeing the singularity. It’s the nasty thing in the middle. If you fall into a black hole, then you pretty well inevitably get squashed into this singularity at the end. And that’s the end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Penrose said he was trying to figure this out using math while walking to work with a colleague 56 years ago, thinking about “what it would be like to be in this situation where all this material is collapsing around you.” He realized he had “some strange feeling of elation,” and that was when things started coming together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Martin Rees, the British astronomer royal, noted that Penrose triggered a “renaissance” in the study of relativity in the 1960s, and that, together with a young Stephen Hawking, he helped firm up evidence for the Big Bang and black holes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Penrose and Hawking are the two individuals who have done more than anyone else since Einstein to deepen our knowledge of gravity,” Rees said. “Sadly, this award was too much delayed to allow Hawking to share the credit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hawking died in 2018, and Nobel Prizes are awarded only to the living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Genzel, 68, and Ghez won because “they showed that black holes are not just theory — they’re real, they’re here, and there’s a monster-size black hole in the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way,” said Brian Greene, a theoretical physicist and mathematician at Columbia University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1990s, Genzel and Ghez, leading separate groups of astronomers, trained their sights on the dust-covered center of our Milky Way galaxy, a region called Sagittarius A(asterisk), where something strange was going on. It was “an extremely heavy, invisible object that pulls on the jumble of stars, causing them to rush around at dizzying speeds,” according to the Nobel Committee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a black hole. Not just an ordinary black hole, but a supermassive one, 4 million times the mass of our sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first image Ghez got was in 1995, using the Keck Telescope in Hawaii that had just gone online. A year later, another image seemed to indicate that the stars near the center of the Milky Way were circling something. A third image led Ghez and Genzel to think they were really on to something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A fierce competition developed between Ghez and Genzel, whose team was using an array of telescopes at the European Southern Observatory in Chile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their rivalry elevated them to greater scientific heights,” said Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike with other achievements honored with Nobels, there is no practical application for these discoveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is there a practical application to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony?” Columbia’s Greene asked. “But its existence, this type of spectacular knowledge, is part of what gives life meaning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Nobel comes with a gold medal and 10 million kronor (more than $1.1 million), courtesy of a bequest left 124 years ago by the prize’s creator, Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Monday, the Nobel in medicine was awarded to Americans Harvey J. Alter and Charles M. Rice and British-born scientist Michael Houghton for discovering the liver-ravaging hepatitis C virus.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The prizes for chemistry, literature, peace and economics will be announced in the coming days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Is There Life in the Clouds Above Venus?",
"headTitle": "Is There Life in the Clouds Above Venus? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an era of deep space exploration, a tantalizing and surprising discovery has raised the possibility of life on Earth’s nearest, scorching-hot planetary neighbor \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Venus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists observing with the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eaobservatory.org/jcmt/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James Clerk Maxwell Telescope\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Hawaii \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2009/2009.06499.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">detected the spectroscopic signature\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the chemical compound \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">phosphine\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the Venusian clouds, about 35 miles above the surface. Follow-up observations with the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/home/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Chile confirmed the discovery.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phosphine, or PH3, a molecule composed of one phosphorus and three hydrogen atoms, is a “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://astrobiology.com/2019/10/phosphine-as-a-biosignature-gas-in-exoplanet-atmospheres.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">biomarker\u003c/span>\u003c/a>“\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> chemical that scientists hope to find in the atmospheres of distant Earth-like extrasolar planets to indicate possible biological activity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Earth, besides human industrial activity, the only known generator of phosphine is anaerobic life (which does not require oxygen to grow), either from microbial organisms or the decomposition of organic matter. And though there are nonbiological processes that produce phosphine deep in the hydrogen atmospheres of giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, those conditions are not found on small rocky worlds like Earth and Venus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Follow the Phosphine?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/history-of-astrobiology/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Astrobiologists \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have focused their search for extraterrestrial life on places that harbor liquid water. NASA’s life-seeking motto is “Follow the water,” since life as we understand it on Earth requires water to thrive, let alone originate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Orbital spacecraft like NASA’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/odyssey/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mars Odyssey \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and rovers like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spirit, Opportunity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Curiosity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, have raked the dry surface of Mars to find and analyze mineral residues from its extinct seas. Soon, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perseverance \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will dig for signs of past Martian life that may have thrived in those waters. The Galileo spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope have revealed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://europa.nasa.gov/europa/ocean/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">signs of an ocean\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hidden under the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and the Cassini probe sampled plumes of mineral-laden water erupting from Saturn’s moon \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/science/enceladus/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enceladus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, believed to originate from a subsurface sea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969691\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969691 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA-800x780.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA-800x780.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA-768x749.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An infrared image of the cloud structure on the night side of Venus (right half) captured by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft. The image shows a surprising amount of atmospheric structure in the nighttime clouds of Venus, whose hot, thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and clouds of sulfuric acid create an environment not thought to support life. Measurements of the biomarker molecule phosphine are making scientists reconsider the possibility of a more life friendly environment high in Venus’ atmosphere. \u003ccite>(JAXA/Akatsuki)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But one thing we have learned about life on Earth is that it keeps showing up in places where we least expect to find it. “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/extremophile.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extremophiles\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” earthly organisms that thrive in some of the hottest, coldest and most toxic watery environments on our planet, have been found deep within frigid Antarctic and alpine lakes, around superheated hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, and at the fringes of toxic geothermal hot springs. These highly resilient and adaptable life forms give us hope of finding signs of life in the waters of completely alien worlds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With very little water vapor in its atmosphere, Venus is not a place where scientists expect to find signs of life, but the discovery of the biomarker phosphine is fueling \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/life-on-venus-breakthrough-initiatives-funds-study-of-possible-biosignature/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">further investigation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and possible \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-goddard-team-selected-to-design-concept-for-probe-of-mysterious-venus-atmosphere\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">future missions to Venus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to explore the question.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>If This Is Life, Where Did It Come From?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere is produced by non-oxygen-using microbial life and not abiotic chemical processes (processes not derived from living organisms) that we simply don’t yet understand, where did the critters come from? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Venus’ surface, temperatures soar to around 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and the atmospheric pressure is 90 times greater than sea level on Earth, equivalent to the water pressure half a mile deep in Earth’s oceans. It is challenging to imagine even a hardy form of Venusian life existing there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969695 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-800x460.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-800x460.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-1020x587.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-160x92.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-768x442.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image taken on the surface of Venus by the Soviet Union’s Venera 13 spacecraft in 1982. The Venera landings are the only missions to have captured images on Venus’ surface. \u003ccite>(USSR Academy of Sciences / Brown University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But at the altitude where Venus’ phosphine was detected, between 30 and 40 miles above the surface, the atmospheric pressure and temperature are similar to Earth’s surface, though the chemistry is very different, dominated by carbon dioxide gas and liquid droplets of sulfuric acid. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some scientists believe that conditions on Venus were very different in the past, and that billions of years ago \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-climate-modeling-suggests-venus-may-have-been-habitable\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Venus might have had a surface ocean\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of water and atmospheric conditions closer to that of the young Earth. And if life could arise in Earth’s primordial oceans and atmosphere, why not on Venus?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the environment on Venus’ surface changed from more clement conditions to the hellish planetary pressure cooker it is today, some theorize that extremophile life forms could have fled skyward to survive, adapting to a less harsh environmental niche at higher altitude.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s Next in the Hunt for Life on Venus?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers stress that the detection of phosphine in the clouds above Venus \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/so-astronomers-may-have-found-evidence-of-life-on-venus\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">does not mean the certain presence\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of life there, and that there may be a nonbiological explanation that we have yet to understand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969694\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969694 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/pia00104-640-NASA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/pia00104-640-NASA.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/pia00104-640-NASA-160x88.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A radar map of the surface of the planet Venus, created from data acquired by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s. Venus’ thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and dense sulfuric acid clouds make visible-light observations of Venus’ surface impossible, but radar does penetrate the clouds, letting us view the global topography of Earth’s “sister planet.” \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further telescopic observations will be made to learn more, but verifying what’s going on in Venus’ atmosphere will require sending a spacecraft to investigate. NASA is currently \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-17/nasa-considering-venus-mission-after-gas-discovery/12672078\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">considering mission proposals\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to do just that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If there is life thriving in Venus’ clouds, it raises even more questions: Did life begin independently on Earth and Venus, and if so, which came first? Or could life on both planets share a common origin? And, if life sprung up readily on both sister planets, and possibly on neighboring Mars as well, what does that say about how common life may be in the universe?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Personally, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a future robotic probe floating through the Venusian atmosphere will send us evidence of microscopic life floating in the clouds of our closest neighboring planet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an era of deep space exploration, a tantalizing and surprising discovery has raised the possibility of life on Earth’s nearest, scorching-hot planetary neighbor \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/venus/overview/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Venus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists observing with the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.eaobservatory.org/jcmt/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">James Clerk Maxwell Telescope\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Hawaii \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2009/2009.06499.pdf\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">detected the spectroscopic signature\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the chemical compound \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">phosphine\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the Venusian clouds, about 35 miles above the surface. Follow-up observations with the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.almaobservatory.org/en/home/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Chile confirmed the discovery.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Phosphine, or PH3, a molecule composed of one phosphorus and three hydrogen atoms, is a “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://astrobiology.com/2019/10/phosphine-as-a-biosignature-gas-in-exoplanet-atmospheres.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">biomarker\u003c/span>\u003c/a>“\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> chemical that scientists hope to find in the atmospheres of distant Earth-like extrasolar planets to indicate possible biological activity.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Earth, besides human industrial activity, the only known generator of phosphine is anaerobic life (which does not require oxygen to grow), either from microbial organisms or the decomposition of organic matter. And though there are nonbiological processes that produce phosphine deep in the hydrogen atmospheres of giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn, those conditions are not found on small rocky worlds like Earth and Venus.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Follow the Phosphine?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/about/history-of-astrobiology/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Astrobiologists \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have focused their search for extraterrestrial life on places that harbor liquid water. NASA’s life-seeking motto is “Follow the water,” since life as we understand it on Earth requires water to thrive, let alone originate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Orbital spacecraft like NASA’s \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/odyssey/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mars Odyssey \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mro/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and rovers like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Spirit, Opportunity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Curiosity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, have raked the dry surface of Mars to find and analyze mineral residues from its extinct seas. Soon, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perseverance \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will dig for signs of past Martian life that may have thrived in those waters. The Galileo spacecraft and Hubble Space Telescope have revealed \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://europa.nasa.gov/europa/ocean/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">signs of an ocean\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hidden under the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa, and the Cassini probe sampled plumes of mineral-laden water erupting from Saturn’s moon \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/science/enceladus/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Enceladus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, believed to originate from a subsurface sea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969691\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969691 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA-800x780.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"780\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA-800x780.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA-160x156.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA-768x749.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/470_a_NightonVenus-ISAS-JAXA.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An infrared image of the cloud structure on the night side of Venus (right half) captured by Japan’s Akatsuki spacecraft. The image shows a surprising amount of atmospheric structure in the nighttime clouds of Venus, whose hot, thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and clouds of sulfuric acid create an environment not thought to support life. Measurements of the biomarker molecule phosphine are making scientists reconsider the possibility of a more life friendly environment high in Venus’ atmosphere. \u003ccite>(JAXA/Akatsuki)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But one thing we have learned about life on Earth is that it keeps showing up in places where we least expect to find it. “\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/extremophile.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extremophiles\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,” earthly organisms that thrive in some of the hottest, coldest and most toxic watery environments on our planet, have been found deep within frigid Antarctic and alpine lakes, around superheated hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, and at the fringes of toxic geothermal hot springs. These highly resilient and adaptable life forms give us hope of finding signs of life in the waters of completely alien worlds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With very little water vapor in its atmosphere, Venus is not a place where scientists expect to find signs of life, but the discovery of the biomarker phosphine is fueling \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/life-on-venus-breakthrough-initiatives-funds-study-of-possible-biosignature/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">further investigation\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and possible \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasa-goddard-team-selected-to-design-concept-for-probe-of-mysterious-venus-atmosphere\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">future missions to Venus\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to explore the question.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>If This Is Life, Where Did It Come From?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere is produced by non-oxygen-using microbial life and not abiotic chemical processes (processes not derived from living organisms) that we simply don’t yet understand, where did the critters come from? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Venus’ surface, temperatures soar to around 900 degrees Fahrenheit, and the atmospheric pressure is 90 times greater than sea level on Earth, equivalent to the water pressure half a mile deep in Earth’s oceans. It is challenging to imagine even a hardy form of Venusian life existing there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969695 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-800x460.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-800x460.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-1020x587.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-160x92.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu-768x442.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/WEB12184-2011_640-Venera13-USSRAcademyOfSciences-BrownUniversityu.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image taken on the surface of Venus by the Soviet Union’s Venera 13 spacecraft in 1982. The Venera landings are the only missions to have captured images on Venus’ surface. \u003ccite>(USSR Academy of Sciences / Brown University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But at the altitude where Venus’ phosphine was detected, between 30 and 40 miles above the surface, the atmospheric pressure and temperature are similar to Earth’s surface, though the chemistry is very different, dominated by carbon dioxide gas and liquid droplets of sulfuric acid. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some scientists believe that conditions on Venus were very different in the past, and that billions of years ago \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/nasa-climate-modeling-suggests-venus-may-have-been-habitable\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Venus might have had a surface ocean\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of water and atmospheric conditions closer to that of the young Earth. And if life could arise in Earth’s primordial oceans and atmosphere, why not on Venus?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the environment on Venus’ surface changed from more clement conditions to the hellish planetary pressure cooker it is today, some theorize that extremophile life forms could have fled skyward to survive, adapting to a less harsh environmental niche at higher altitude.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>What’s Next in the Hunt for Life on Venus?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers stress that the detection of phosphine in the clouds above Venus \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/so-astronomers-may-have-found-evidence-of-life-on-venus\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">does not mean the certain presence\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of life there, and that there may be a nonbiological explanation that we have yet to understand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1969694\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1969694 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/pia00104-640-NASA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/pia00104-640-NASA.jpg 640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/09/pia00104-640-NASA-160x88.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A radar map of the surface of the planet Venus, created from data acquired by NASA’s Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s. Venus’ thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and dense sulfuric acid clouds make visible-light observations of Venus’ surface impossible, but radar does penetrate the clouds, letting us view the global topography of Earth’s “sister planet.” \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Further telescopic observations will be made to learn more, but verifying what’s going on in Venus’ atmosphere will require sending a spacecraft to investigate. NASA is currently \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-17/nasa-considering-venus-mission-after-gas-discovery/12672078\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">considering mission proposals\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to do just that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If there is life thriving in Venus’ clouds, it raises even more questions: Did life begin independently on Earth and Venus, and if so, which came first? Or could life on both planets share a common origin? And, if life sprung up readily on both sister planets, and possibly on neighboring Mars as well, what does that say about how common life may be in the universe?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Personally, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a future robotic probe floating through the Venusian atmosphere will send us evidence of microscopic life floating in the clouds of our closest neighboring planet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Signs of Life Seem to Emerge in Yellow, Hazy Clouds of Venus",
"headTitle": "Signs of Life Seem to Emerge in Yellow, Hazy Clouds of Venus | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Scientists say they’ve detected a gas in the clouds of Venus that, on Earth, is produced by microbial life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers have racked their brains trying to understand why this toxic gas, phosphine, is there in such quantities, but they can’t think of any geologic or chemical explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mystery raises the astonishing possibility that Venus, the planet that comes closest to Earth as it whizzes around the sun, might have some kind of life flourishing more than 30 miles up in its yellow, hazy clouds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nothing could live on what passes for land on Venus; its smooth volcanic plains are a scorching hellscape hot enough to melt lead, where the temperatures exceed 800 degrees Fahrenheit. High in the clouds, however, the pressures and temperatures and acidity levels would be less intense — though still vile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The clouds are far more acidic than any environments where microbes make their home on Earth. And instead of water, the clouds on Venus contain droplets of concentrated sulfuric acid; the atmosphere is so bereft of water that it’s many times drier than the driest desert on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All in all, it seems like an unlikely place for life. Nonetheless, the new \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4\">report\u003c/a> in the journal \u003cem>Nature Astronomy\u003c/em> has astrobiologists and planetary scientists talking. Two different telescopes, at two different times, looked at Venus and saw the chemical signature that is unique to phosphine. If this gas is really there, Venus has either got some kind of geologic or chemical activity going on that no one understands, or alien life might be living right next door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways, Venus is similar to Earth. “Before its quite dramatic, runaway greenhouse effect, the surface was pretty habitable,” said \u003ca href=\"https://eapsweb.mit.edu/people/cssilva\">Clara Sousa-Silva\u003c/a> at MIT, who explains that there has long been a theory out there that Venus might have once been inhabited and that life could have retained a stronghold in the clouds. Even Carl Sagan entertained this \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/2151259a0\">idea\u003c/a> back in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why she was so intrigued when \u003ca href=\"https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/913804-greaves-jane\">Jane Greaves\u003c/a> of Cardiff University contacted her. Greaves shared that she and some colleagues had recently found an estimated abundance of 20 parts per billion of phosphine in Venus’ clouds. Sousa-Silva had been studying phosphine as a possible biosignature that could indicate the potential for life being present on planets that orbit distant stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first glance, phosphine might seem like a funny molecule to associate with life, given that it’s a “highly flammable, extremely toxic, outrageously foul-smelling molecule,” said Sousa-Silva. “It’s an extremely dangerous molecule that kills in a variety of imaginative ways, all of which are very final and macabre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s used widely as a fumigant and it was used as a chemical warfare agent in the first world war,” she says, noting that the colorless gas can burn with a green and blue light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for its odor, well, “apparently it smells basically like death,” says Sousa-Silva. “It just smells horrific. We once, I think, found a report of someone saying it smelled like the rancid diapers of the spawn of Satan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because phosphine interferes with oxygen metabolism, it’s toxic for the majority of life on Earth. Still, says Sousa-Silva, “there’s plenty of life, mostly in the shadows, that doesn’t particularly enjoy oxygen and doesn’t rely on oxygen. And these anaerobic ecosystems on Earth happily produce phosphine in reasonably large quantities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Life that makes phosphine on Earth is found in swamps and sewage plants and the bottoms of lakes, she says, as well as in the intestines of animals — that’s why phosphine can be detected in their flatulence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not life that we would find pleasant,” said Sousa-Silva. “Then again, they probably find us disgusting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phosphine is so chemically reactive that it breaks down quickly, however, so how was it accumulating in the clouds of Venus? The researchers considered possible sources on the surface of Venus, as well as delivery by meteorites, creation by lightning, or obscure chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Nothing they dreamed up could do the trick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That left the possibility of life. On Earth, any microbes in the clouds circulate up and down from the surface, but that wouldn’t be possible on Venus because the surface is so deadly, says \u003ca href=\"https://eapsweb.mit.edu/people/jjpetkow\">Janusz Petkowski\u003c/a> of MIT. Any life in the clouds of Venus, he says, would have to somehow survive in highly concentrated sulfuric acid that’s around a billion times worse than any acidic environment on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s very difficult to imagine, says Petkowski. “But is it impossible? I would say that it is not impossible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out what’s really going on, he says, scientists might end up having to just send a mission to Venus that could sample the cloud chemistry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calls for a new look at Venus have already been growing, even before this new discovery. A mission that would send a spherical probe plunging through the atmosphere of Venus down to its surface, for example, is one of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-four-possible-missions-to-study-the-secrets-of-the-solar-system\">proposals\u003c/a> that NASA is currently considering for future solar system exploration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Venus is like a giant unknown,” said \u003ca href=\"https://sese.asu.edu/node/1261\">Hilairy Hartnett\u003c/a> of Arizona State University. “It’s one of the planets that we almost know the least about in our own solar system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA astrobiologist \u003ca href=\"https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/giada.n.arney\">Giada Arney\u003c/a> agrees. “If there’s life in the Venus clouds, that would be extraordinary, but there’s still much we don’t understand about the Venus environment,” she says. While the research team that produced this new study clearly has done a lot of thinking about what non-living processes might produce phosphine on Venus, “there is much about Venus we still don’t understand, or that we understand poorly. It’ll take the combined work of the Venus and astrobiology communities to answer this important question fully.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venus was the first planet ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2012/12/14/167211913/50-years-after-first-interplanetary-probe-nasa-looks-to-future\">visited\u003c/a> by a spacecraft, when NASA’s Mariner 2 flew by in 1962. Before that mission, scientists could only peer at its shroud of clouds and wonder what lay beneath them. Mariner 2 showed that the surface of Venus was an inhospitable furnace, so it couldn’t be the kind of primordial jungle that some had imagined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conditions on the surface are so extreme that it’s hard to send a probe that can survive. In 1982, the Soviet spacecraft \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/venera-13/in-depth/\">Venera 13\u003c/a> lasted only a couple of hours after landing, sending home photos of orange-brown rocks before it succumbed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venus wasn’t always this way; it used to be much more cozy. New climate models show that Venus could have sustained liquid water on its surface as recently as a billion years ago, says \u003ca href=\"http://stephenkane.net/\">Stephen Kane\u003c/a> of UC Riverside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the phosphine find represents “the remnants of some past ecosystem, that means it probably would have had to have sustained its presence in the clouds for about a billion years,” says Kane, calling that “an extremely difficult problem” to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do need to seriously consider that there is a much more natural geological explanation that we just haven’t figured out yet,” said Kane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He notes that frequently when scientists talk about finding “biosignatures” that could indicate the possible presence of life, they focus on far-off planets around stars other than our sun. Those planets, notes Kane, are so remote that they’re basically unreachable in human lifetimes, but Venus is close at hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a test for us because in this case, we can go to Venus,” says Kane. “This is really an incredibly important test for the whole concept of biosignatures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just the presence of phosphorus in Venus’ atmosphere is fascinating, even if it doesn’t turn out to be linked to life on Venus, says Hartnett. She points out that on Earth, phosphorus is the backbone of the genetic code and the energy currency of cells, yet scientists know little about how phosphorus is distributed in planets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The phosphine detection is exciting,” agrees \u003ca href=\"https://www.gps.caltech.edu/people/bethany-l-ehlmann\">Bethany Ehlmann\u003c/a>, a planetary scientist at Caltech. “Of course, you know, the big tantalizing aspect is that it could be life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, echoing Carl Sagan, she says, ” ‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.’ Put phosphine on Venus in the list of mysteries, big mysteries, in the solar system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Possible+Sign+Of+Life+Right+Next+Door+To+Earth%2C+On+Venus&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Scientists say they’ve detected a gas in the clouds of Venus that, on Earth, is produced by microbial life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers have racked their brains trying to understand why this toxic gas, phosphine, is there in such quantities, but they can’t think of any geologic or chemical explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mystery raises the astonishing possibility that Venus, the planet that comes closest to Earth as it whizzes around the sun, might have some kind of life flourishing more than 30 miles up in its yellow, hazy clouds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nothing could live on what passes for land on Venus; its smooth volcanic plains are a scorching hellscape hot enough to melt lead, where the temperatures exceed 800 degrees Fahrenheit. High in the clouds, however, the pressures and temperatures and acidity levels would be less intense — though still vile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The clouds are far more acidic than any environments where microbes make their home on Earth. And instead of water, the clouds on Venus contain droplets of concentrated sulfuric acid; the atmosphere is so bereft of water that it’s many times drier than the driest desert on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All in all, it seems like an unlikely place for life. Nonetheless, the new \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1174-4\">report\u003c/a> in the journal \u003cem>Nature Astronomy\u003c/em> has astrobiologists and planetary scientists talking. Two different telescopes, at two different times, looked at Venus and saw the chemical signature that is unique to phosphine. If this gas is really there, Venus has either got some kind of geologic or chemical activity going on that no one understands, or alien life might be living right next door.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In many ways, Venus is similar to Earth. “Before its quite dramatic, runaway greenhouse effect, the surface was pretty habitable,” said \u003ca href=\"https://eapsweb.mit.edu/people/cssilva\">Clara Sousa-Silva\u003c/a> at MIT, who explains that there has long been a theory out there that Venus might have once been inhabited and that life could have retained a stronghold in the clouds. Even Carl Sagan entertained this \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/2151259a0\">idea\u003c/a> back in the 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why she was so intrigued when \u003ca href=\"https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/913804-greaves-jane\">Jane Greaves\u003c/a> of Cardiff University contacted her. Greaves shared that she and some colleagues had recently found an estimated abundance of 20 parts per billion of phosphine in Venus’ clouds. Sousa-Silva had been studying phosphine as a possible biosignature that could indicate the potential for life being present on planets that orbit distant stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first glance, phosphine might seem like a funny molecule to associate with life, given that it’s a “highly flammable, extremely toxic, outrageously foul-smelling molecule,” said Sousa-Silva. “It’s an extremely dangerous molecule that kills in a variety of imaginative ways, all of which are very final and macabre.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s used widely as a fumigant and it was used as a chemical warfare agent in the first world war,” she says, noting that the colorless gas can burn with a green and blue light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for its odor, well, “apparently it smells basically like death,” says Sousa-Silva. “It just smells horrific. We once, I think, found a report of someone saying it smelled like the rancid diapers of the spawn of Satan.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because phosphine interferes with oxygen metabolism, it’s toxic for the majority of life on Earth. Still, says Sousa-Silva, “there’s plenty of life, mostly in the shadows, that doesn’t particularly enjoy oxygen and doesn’t rely on oxygen. And these anaerobic ecosystems on Earth happily produce phosphine in reasonably large quantities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Life that makes phosphine on Earth is found in swamps and sewage plants and the bottoms of lakes, she says, as well as in the intestines of animals — that’s why phosphine can be detected in their flatulence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not life that we would find pleasant,” said Sousa-Silva. “Then again, they probably find us disgusting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Phosphine is so chemically reactive that it breaks down quickly, however, so how was it accumulating in the clouds of Venus? The researchers considered possible sources on the surface of Venus, as well as delivery by meteorites, creation by lightning, or obscure chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Nothing they dreamed up could do the trick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That left the possibility of life. On Earth, any microbes in the clouds circulate up and down from the surface, but that wouldn’t be possible on Venus because the surface is so deadly, says \u003ca href=\"https://eapsweb.mit.edu/people/jjpetkow\">Janusz Petkowski\u003c/a> of MIT. Any life in the clouds of Venus, he says, would have to somehow survive in highly concentrated sulfuric acid that’s around a billion times worse than any acidic environment on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s very difficult to imagine, says Petkowski. “But is it impossible? I would say that it is not impossible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find out what’s really going on, he says, scientists might end up having to just send a mission to Venus that could sample the cloud chemistry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Calls for a new look at Venus have already been growing, even before this new discovery. A mission that would send a spherical probe plunging through the atmosphere of Venus down to its surface, for example, is one of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-selects-four-possible-missions-to-study-the-secrets-of-the-solar-system\">proposals\u003c/a> that NASA is currently considering for future solar system exploration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Venus is like a giant unknown,” said \u003ca href=\"https://sese.asu.edu/node/1261\">Hilairy Hartnett\u003c/a> of Arizona State University. “It’s one of the planets that we almost know the least about in our own solar system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA astrobiologist \u003ca href=\"https://science.gsfc.nasa.gov/sed/bio/giada.n.arney\">Giada Arney\u003c/a> agrees. “If there’s life in the Venus clouds, that would be extraordinary, but there’s still much we don’t understand about the Venus environment,” she says. While the research team that produced this new study clearly has done a lot of thinking about what non-living processes might produce phosphine on Venus, “there is much about Venus we still don’t understand, or that we understand poorly. It’ll take the combined work of the Venus and astrobiology communities to answer this important question fully.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venus was the first planet ever \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2012/12/14/167211913/50-years-after-first-interplanetary-probe-nasa-looks-to-future\">visited\u003c/a> by a spacecraft, when NASA’s Mariner 2 flew by in 1962. Before that mission, scientists could only peer at its shroud of clouds and wonder what lay beneath them. Mariner 2 showed that the surface of Venus was an inhospitable furnace, so it couldn’t be the kind of primordial jungle that some had imagined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conditions on the surface are so extreme that it’s hard to send a probe that can survive. In 1982, the Soviet spacecraft \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/venera-13/in-depth/\">Venera 13\u003c/a> lasted only a couple of hours after landing, sending home photos of orange-brown rocks before it succumbed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Venus wasn’t always this way; it used to be much more cozy. New climate models show that Venus could have sustained liquid water on its surface as recently as a billion years ago, says \u003ca href=\"http://stephenkane.net/\">Stephen Kane\u003c/a> of UC Riverside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the phosphine find represents “the remnants of some past ecosystem, that means it probably would have had to have sustained its presence in the clouds for about a billion years,” says Kane, calling that “an extremely difficult problem” to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do need to seriously consider that there is a much more natural geological explanation that we just haven’t figured out yet,” said Kane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He notes that frequently when scientists talk about finding “biosignatures” that could indicate the possible presence of life, they focus on far-off planets around stars other than our sun. Those planets, notes Kane, are so remote that they’re basically unreachable in human lifetimes, but Venus is close at hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a test for us because in this case, we can go to Venus,” says Kane. “This is really an incredibly important test for the whole concept of biosignatures.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just the presence of phosphorus in Venus’ atmosphere is fascinating, even if it doesn’t turn out to be linked to life on Venus, says Hartnett. She points out that on Earth, phosphorus is the backbone of the genetic code and the energy currency of cells, yet scientists know little about how phosphorus is distributed in planets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The phosphine detection is exciting,” agrees \u003ca href=\"https://www.gps.caltech.edu/people/bethany-l-ehlmann\">Bethany Ehlmann\u003c/a>, a planetary scientist at Caltech. “Of course, you know, the big tantalizing aspect is that it could be life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, echoing Carl Sagan, she says, ” ‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.’ Put phosphine on Venus in the list of mysteries, big mysteries, in the solar system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Possible+Sign+Of+Life+Right+Next+Door+To+Earth%2C+On+Venus&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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},
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
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