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A NASA Weather ‘Eye in the Sky’ Marks 10 Years

By Guest PostMay 7, 2012Environment, Scienceairs, amsu a, atmosphere, atmospheric infrared sounder, bae systems, boston, carbon dioxide, climate change, climate research, earth, energy cycle, eric fetzer, eye, global water, greenhouse gases, hyperspectral sounding, instrument, jet propulsion laboratory, model, monster, moustafa chahine, NASA, sky, tom pagano, water vapor, weather forecasting, weather satellites

For 10 years, it has silently swooped through space in its orbital perch 438 miles (705 kilometers) above Earth, its nearly 2,400 spectral “eyes” peering into Earth’s atmosphere, watching. But there’s nothing alien about NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, or AIRS, instrument, a “monster” of weather and climate research that celebrates its 10th birthday in orbit May 4.

AIRS, built by BAE Systems, Boston, under the direction of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is one of six instruments flying on NASA’s Aqua spacecraft as part of NASA’s Earth Observing System. AIRS, along with its partner microwave instrument, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A), has faithfully measured our planet’s atmospheric temperature, water vapor, clouds and greenhouse gases with unprecedented accuracy and stability. Over the past decade, AIRS and AMSU-A have improved our understanding of Earth’s global water and energy cycles, climate change and trends and how Earth’s climate system is responding to increased greenhouse gases. (more…)

Black Hole Caught Red-Handed in a Stellar Homicide

By Guest PostMay 2, 2012Sciencearmin rest, astronomer, Baltimore, billion light years, black hole, chandra, demise, Galaxy, galaxy evolution explorer, haleakala, hawaii, helium gas, johns hopkins university, milky way galaxy, NASA, pan starrs1 telescope, supermassive, suvi gezari

PASADENA, Calif. – Astronomers have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer, a space-based observatory, and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on the summit of Haleakala in Hawaii were among the first to help identify the stellar remains.

Supermassive black holes, weighing millions to billions times more than the sun, lurk in the centers of most galaxies. These hefty monsters lie quietly until an unsuspecting victim, such as a star, wanders close enough to get ripped apart by their powerful gravitational clutches. (more…)

NASA’s Spitzer Finds Galaxy with Split Personality

By Guest PostApril 27, 2012Sciencearchetypal galaxy, centaurus, Chile, constellation virgo, dimitri gadotti, earth, elliptical galaxy, ellipticals, Galaxy, galaxy evolution, globular cluster, NASA, ngc 4594, ruben sanchez janssen, sean carey, sombrero galaxy, spiral disk, spiral milky way, spitzer space telescope, split personality

PASADENA, Calif. — While some galaxies are rotund and others are slender disks like our spiral Milky Way, new observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope show that the Sombrero galaxy is both. The galaxy, which is a round elliptical galaxy with a thin disk embedded inside, is one of the first known to exhibit characteristics of the two different types. The findings will lead to a better understanding of galaxy evolution, a topic still poorly understood.

“The Sombrero is more complex than previously thought,” said Dimitri Gadotti of the European Southern Observatory in Chile and lead author of a new paper on the findings appearing in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. “The only way to understand all we know about this galaxy is to think of it as two galaxies, one inside the other.” (more…)

NASA Tests GPS Monitoring System for Big U.S. Quakes

By Guest PostApril 25, 2012Environment2004 sumatra quake, california, craig dobson, earthquake, frank webb, geoffrey blewitt, gps, gps data, hazard monitoring, la jolla, location, magnitude, NASA, natural hazard, oregon, pacific, readi, reno, ring of fire, seismological instrument, space based technology, timothy melbourne, tsunami warning, university of nevada, usgs, Washington, western united states, yehuda bock

PASADENA, Calif. – The space-based technology that lets GPS-equipped motorists constantly update their precise location will undergo a major test of its ability to rapidly pinpoint the location and magnitude of strong earthquakes across the western United States. Results from the new Real-time Earthquake Analysis for Disaster (READI) Mitigation Network soon could be used to assist prompt disaster response and more accurate tsunami warnings.

The new research network builds on decades of technology development supported by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The network uses real-time GPS measurements from nearly 500 stations throughout California, Oregon and Washington. When a large earthquake is detected, GPS data are used to automatically calculate its vital characteristics, including location, magnitude and details about the fault rupture. (more…)

Study Finds Surprising Arctic Methane Emission Source

By Guest PostApril 22, 2012Environmentarctic methane, arctic ocean, arctic region, Arctic sea ice, arctic tundra soil, beaufort seas, carbon monoxide, chukchi, climate, concentration, earth system, eric kort, geologic reservoir, global warming, greenhouse gas, harvard university, hippo, jet propulsion laboratory, marine sediment, methane, NASA, ozone, reservoir, water vapor

The fragile and rapidly changing Arctic region is home to large reservoirs of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. As Earth’s climate warms, the methane, frozen in reservoirs stored in Arctic tundra soils or marine sediments, is vulnerable to being released into the atmosphere, where it can add to global warming. Now a multi-institutional study by Eric Kort of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has uncovered a surprising and potentially important new source of Arctic methane: the ocean itself. (more…)

Cassini Finds Titan Lake is Like a Namibia Mudflat

By Guest PostApril 20, 2012Scienceatmosphere, bonnie buratti, cassini spacecraft, earth, ethane, etosha salt pan, geological feature, groundwater level, hydrocarbon cycle, lake, liquid hydrocarbon, methane, moon, mudflats, NASA, ontario lacus, propane, rainy season, saturated sand, saturn, south polar, thomas cornet, titan

A new study analyzing data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggests that the lake, known as Ontario Lacus, behaves most similarly to what we call a salt pan on Earth.

A group led by Thomas Cornet of the Université de Nantes, France, a Cassini associate, found evidence for long-standing channels etched into the lake bed within the southern boundary of the depression. This suggests that Ontario Lacus, previously thought to be completely filled with liquid hydrocarbons, could actually be a depression that drains and refills from below, exposing liquid areas ringed by materials like saturated sand or mudflats. (more…)

Cosmic Ray Mystery

By Guest PostApril 19, 2012Scienceactive galaxies, Antarctica, array of detector, australia, bakhtiyar ruzybayev, barbados, belgium, black hole, canada, charged particle, chris elliott, cosmic ray, cosmic ray protons, data, density of radiation, detector, earth, energy, fermi satellites, fireballs, francis halzen, gamma ray bursts, Germany, ghostly nature, glacial ice, grbs, greg sullivan, icecube, icetop, james roth, Japan, katie shirey, NASA, national science foundation, neutrinos, new zealand, nsf, production, proton, pyramid of giza, south pole, Sweden, swift, switzerland, telescope, thomas gaisser, universe, university of delaware, university of wisconsin, US

Massive detector homes in on cosmic ray production

IceCube, an international collaboration involving University of Delaware scientists, is shedding new light on cosmic ray production.

Although cosmic rays were discovered 100 years ago, their origin remains one of the most enduring mysteries in physics. Now, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a massive detector in Antarctica, is homing in on how the highest energy cosmic rays are produced. (more…)

12-Mile-High Martian Dust Devil Caught in Act

By Guest PostApril 6, 2012Scienceamazonis planitia, dust devil, earth, hirise camera, mars reconnaissance orbiter, martian dust devil, martian surface, meteorite impact, NASA, northern mars, northern summer solstice, plume, red planet, tucson, university of arizona

A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles high (20 kilometers) was captured whirling its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14. It was imaged by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Despite its height, the plume is little more than three-quarters of a football field wide (70 yards, or 70 meters).

Dust devils occur on Earth as well as on Mars. They are spinning columns of air, made visible by the dust they pull off the ground. Unlike a tornado, a dust devil typically forms on a clear day when the ground is heated by the sun, warming the air just above the ground. As heated air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler air above it, the air may begin to rotate, if conditions are just right. (more…)

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