Thursday, September 28, 2006
Mars Rover
The Mars rover Opportunity reached the rim of a deep crater Wednesday after an arduous 21-month trek, marking a milestone in its exploration for clues about the Martian past.
The rover beamed black-and-white images back to Earth showing the crater interior complete with hanging rocky cliffs and rippling sand dunes on its floor.
"We made it!" said rover principal scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University.
The road to Victoria Crater, a half-mile wide and 230-foot deep impact crater, was tough. The six-wheeled Opportunity drove through what scientists called a "wasteland." At one point, it spent five weeks stuck hub-deep in a slippery sand dune before freeing itself. Victoria, with its exposed walls of thickly layered rocks, is a treasure trove for scientists trying to determine whether the rocks were formed in shallow lakes, which might suggest the planet once could have been hospitable to life.
"The big payoff is getting to the rock record," said deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.
Opportunity will spend a day looking for a more favorable spot around the rim to take a panorama of the vista. Meanwhile, scientists are plotting Opportunity's next move and analyzing the images to find the safest route for the rover to enter.
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have been exploring opposite sides of Mars since landing in 2004. Both uncovered geologic evidence of past water activity on the planet. The rovers, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, have outlasted their primary, three-month mission. This week, the space agency extended the rovers' mission for at least one more year.
Mars Rover homepage: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/
The rover beamed black-and-white images back to Earth showing the crater interior complete with hanging rocky cliffs and rippling sand dunes on its floor.
"We made it!" said rover principal scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University.
The road to Victoria Crater, a half-mile wide and 230-foot deep impact crater, was tough. The six-wheeled Opportunity drove through what scientists called a "wasteland." At one point, it spent five weeks stuck hub-deep in a slippery sand dune before freeing itself. Victoria, with its exposed walls of thickly layered rocks, is a treasure trove for scientists trying to determine whether the rocks were formed in shallow lakes, which might suggest the planet once could have been hospitable to life.
"The big payoff is getting to the rock record," said deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.
Opportunity will spend a day looking for a more favorable spot around the rim to take a panorama of the vista. Meanwhile, scientists are plotting Opportunity's next move and analyzing the images to find the safest route for the rover to enter.
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, have been exploring opposite sides of Mars since landing in 2004. Both uncovered geologic evidence of past water activity on the planet. The rovers, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, have outlasted their primary, three-month mission. This week, the space agency extended the rovers' mission for at least one more year.
Mars Rover homepage: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/
Monday, September 11, 2006
Rare Uranian eclipse
The Hubble Space Telescope has for the first time recorded an eclipse on Uranus. The white dot is Uranus' moon Ariel, which is 1,120 kilometers wide.
By blocking the sun, it casts a shadow (black dot to right) on the planet's cloud tops.
Although eclipses frequently occur on Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus rotates tipped on its side, so the sun alternately shines on one pole or the other during the planet's 84-year orbit. Because the moons of Uranus orbit at the planet's equator, the sun seldom illuminates them directly. During the last equinox on Uranus, in 1965, no telescope was sharp enough to record an eclipse.
As Uranus approaches its 2007 equinox, astronomers expect Hubble's sharp eye to record many more eclipses by the planet's retinue of satellites.
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2006/42/
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Free formulation consultation at HBA '06
Chemir is offering a free 20 minute formulation consultation at the Health & Beauty America Expo in New York. If you want to schedule a consultation, call 800-659-7659 extension 145.
http://www.chemir.com
http://www.hbaexpo.com
http://www.chemir.com
http://www.hbaexpo.com
