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Saturn

Cassini spacecraft began detecting radio emissions from Saturn in April 2002. Cassini was 2.5 astronomical units from the planet. So, that’s pretty far… since 1 AU is about from here (points to ground) to there (points to sun).

This recording is compressed and is actually playing at 22x real time. Since the emissions are well above audio frequency range, they’ve been shifted downward by a factor of 44. But, I don’t care! I love them.

unknownskywalker: Mars: Carbon Dioxide Ice in the Late Summer Mars has extremely large temperature changes from winter to summer compared to the Earth. It gets cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere during the winter, but this ice is unstable when the warmer summer arrives and forces it to sublimate (transform directly back into a gas) away. Near the South pole though, it stays cold enough for some of this seasonal ice to stick around all year and even accumulate from year to year. This image shows a portion of this permanent carbon dioxide ice cap. This slab of ice is a few meters thick and is penetrated by the flat-floored pits shown here. The quasi-circular pits in the center of the scene are about 60 meters across. The distinct color of the pit walls may be due to dust mixed into the ice. For most of the year these walls are covered with bright frost, but they defrost and show their true colors at the end of the summer. Lovely and bizarre picture of Mars’ carbon dioxide ice cap.   High-res

unknownskywalker:

Mars: Carbon Dioxide Ice in the Late Summer

Mars has extremely large temperature changes from winter to summer compared to the Earth. It gets cold enough to freeze carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere during the winter, but this ice is unstable when the warmer summer arrives and forces it to sublimate (transform directly back into a gas) away.

Near the South pole though, it stays cold enough for some of this seasonal ice to stick around all year and even accumulate from year to year. This image shows a portion of this permanent carbon dioxide ice cap. This slab of ice is a few meters thick and is penetrated by the flat-floored pits shown here. The quasi-circular pits in the center of the scene are about 60 meters across.

The distinct color of the pit walls may be due to dust mixed into the ice. For most of the year these walls are covered with bright frost, but they defrost and show their true colors at the end of the summer.

Lovely and bizarre picture of Mars’ carbon dioxide ice cap.

The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft on the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz launched at 4:18am Tuesday, Kazakhstan time. On board is Commander Alexander Samokutyaev, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan and Russian Flight Engineer Andrey Borisenko. The Soyuz has been dubbed ‘Gagarin,’ in honor of Yuri Gagarin, the first person to fly in space. He launched from the same pad on April 12, 1961. Image: NASA/Carla Cioffi.   High-res

The Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft on the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Soyuz launched at 4:18am Tuesday, Kazakhstan time. On board is Commander Alexander Samokutyaev, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan and Russian Flight Engineer Andrey Borisenko. The Soyuz has been dubbed ‘Gagarin,’ in honor of Yuri Gagarin, the first person to fly in space. He launched from the same pad on April 12, 1961. Image: NASA/Carla Cioffi.

unknownskywalker: Neighbouring volcanoes on Mars ESA’s Mars Express has returned images of mist-capped volcanoes located in the northern hemisphere of the red planet. Long after volcanic activity ceased, the area was transformed by meteor impacts that deposited ejected material over the lower flanks of the volcanoes. Ceraunius Tholus and Uranius Tholus are two volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars. Ceraunius Tholus is 130 km across and rises 5.5 km above its surroundings. The flanks of this volcano are etched with many valleys. Its neighbour, Uranius Tholus is a smaller volcano, with a base diameter of 62 km and a height of 4.5 km. This image is derived from data acquired during three separate orbits of Mars Express, which took place between 25 November 2004 and 22 June 2006. During the second orbit, Mars Express’s camera captured icy clouds drifting past the summit of Ceraunius Tholus. Lovely, lovely pics of Martian volcanoes.   High-res

unknownskywalker:

Neighbouring volcanoes on Mars

ESA’s Mars Express has returned images of mist-capped volcanoes located in the northern hemisphere of the red planet. Long after volcanic activity ceased, the area was transformed by meteor impacts that deposited ejected material over the lower flanks of the volcanoes.

Ceraunius Tholus and Uranius Tholus are two volcanoes in the Tharsis region of Mars. Ceraunius Tholus is 130 km across and rises 5.5 km above its surroundings. The flanks of this volcano are etched with many valleys. Its neighbour, Uranius Tholus is a smaller volcano, with a base diameter of 62 km and a height of 4.5 km.

This image is derived from data acquired during three separate orbits of Mars Express, which took place between 25 November 2004 and 22 June 2006. During the second orbit, Mars Express’s camera captured icy clouds drifting past the summit of Ceraunius Tholus.

Lovely, lovely pics of Martian volcanoes.

unknownskywalker: Water-Powered Spaceship Could Make Mars Trip on the Cheap A journey to Mars and back in a water-fueled vehicle could cost as little as one space shuttle launch costs today, researchers said. And the idea is to keep these “space coaches” in orbit between trips, so their relative value would grow over time, as the vehicles reduce the need for expensive one-off missions that launch from Earth. The space coach concept vehicle is water-driven and water-centric, starting with its solar-powered electrothermal engines. These engines would super-heat water, and the resulting steam would then be vented out of a nozzle, producing the necessary amount of thrust. The space coach’s living quarters would be composed of a series of interconnected inflatable habitat modules. Water would be a big part of the space coach’s body, too. Packed along the habitat modules, it would provide good radiation shielding. It could also be incorporated into the fabric walls themselves, freezing into a strong, rigid debris shield when the structure is exposed to the extreme cold of space. Rotating the craft could also generate artificial gravity approximating that of Earth in certain parts of the ship. The water-powered space coach is just a concept at the moment, but it could become a reality soon enough, researchers said. It’s really a systems integration challenge. Image: Artist’s rendering of a space coach — a water-powered concept vehicle — cruising near the Martian moon Phobos. The cylinders are interconnected habitat modules, while the flatter regions are solar arrays.   High-res

unknownskywalker:

Water-Powered Spaceship Could Make Mars Trip on the Cheap

A journey to Mars and back in a water-fueled vehicle could cost as little as one space shuttle launch costs today, researchers said. And the idea is to keep these “space coaches” in orbit between trips, so their relative value would grow over time, as the vehicles reduce the need for expensive one-off missions that launch from Earth.

The space coach concept vehicle is water-driven and water-centric, starting with its solar-powered electrothermal engines. These engines would super-heat water, and the resulting steam would then be vented out of a nozzle, producing the necessary amount of thrust.

The space coach’s living quarters would be composed of a series of interconnected inflatable habitat modules. Water would be a big part of the space coach’s body, too. Packed along the habitat modules, it would provide good radiation shielding. It could also be incorporated into the fabric walls themselves, freezing into a strong, rigid debris shield when the structure is exposed to the extreme cold of space. Rotating the craft could also generate artificial gravity approximating that of Earth in certain parts of the ship.

The water-powered space coach is just a concept at the moment, but it could become a reality soon enough, researchers said. It’s really a systems integration challenge.

Image: Artist’s rendering of a space coach — a water-powered concept vehicle — cruising near the Martian moon Phobos. The cylinders are interconnected habitat modules, while the flatter regions are solar arrays.

unknownskywalker: The Drama of Starbirth The star-forming region NGC 6729 is part of one of the closest stellar nurseries to the Earth and hence one of the best studied. This new image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope gives a close-up view of a section of this strange and fascinating region [View wide-field image]. Stars form deep within molecular clouds and the earliest stages of their development cannot be seen in visible-light telescopes because of obscuration by dust. In this image there are very young stars at the upper left of the picture. Although they cannot be seen directly, the havoc that they have wreaked on their surroundings dominates the picture. High-speed jets of material that travel away from the baby stars at velocities as high as one million kilometres per hour are slamming into the surrounding gas and creating shock waves. These shocks cause the gas to shine and create the strangely coloured glowing arcs and blobs known as Herbig–Haro objects.   High-res

unknownskywalker:

The Drama of Starbirth

The star-forming region NGC 6729 is part of one of the closest stellar nurseries to the Earth and hence one of the best studied. This new image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope gives a close-up view of a section of this strange and fascinating region [View wide-field image].

Stars form deep within molecular clouds and the earliest stages of their development cannot be seen in visible-light telescopes because of obscuration by dust. In this image there are very young stars at the upper left of the picture. Although they cannot be seen directly, the havoc that they have wreaked on their surroundings dominates the picture.

High-speed jets of material that travel away from the baby stars at velocities as high as one million kilometres per hour are slamming into the surrounding gas and creating shock waves. These shocks cause the gas to shine and create the strangely coloured glowing arcs and blobs known as Herbig–Haro objects.