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NASA Sees Repeating La Niña Hitting its Peak

By Guest PostJanuary 20, 2012Environmentamerican southwest, bill patzert, climate, cnes, colorado river, diva of drought, dry years, el niño, equatorial pacific, factors, jason 1, jason 2, jason altimetric satellites, la niña, NASA, near normal, ocean temperature, pacific northwest, pacific ocean, pacific sea surface, satellite, sea surface height, south america, southern california, stormy weather, united states, watershed

La Niña, “the diva of drought,” is peaking, increasing the odds that the Pacific Northwest will have more stormy weather this winter and spring, while the southwestern and southern United States will be dry.

Sea surface height data from NASA’s Jason-1 and -2 satellites show that the milder repeat of last year’s strong La Niña has recently intensified, as seen in the latest Jason-2 image of the Pacific Ocean, available at: https://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/images/ostm/20120108P1.jpg. (more…)

NASA’s Kepler Mission Finds Three Smallest Exoplanets

By Guest PostJanuary 15, 2012Sciencecalifornia institute of technology, caltech, doug hudgins, exoplanets, Galaxy, hawaii, john johnson, jupiter, keck observatory, kepler, kepler 22b, kepler mission, koi 961, mauna kea, milky way galaxy, NASA, palomar observatory, phil muirhead, planet hunters, planetary systems, radius of earth, red dwarfs, san diego, size of mars, smallest planets

PASADENA, Calif. – Astronomers using data from NASA’s Kepler mission have discovered the three smallest planets yet detected orbiting a star beyond our sun. The planets orbit a single star, called KOI-961, and are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the radius of Earth. The smallest is about the size of Mars.

All three planets are thought to be rocky like Earth but orbit close to their star, making them too hot to be in the habitable zone, which is the region where liquid water could exist. Of the more than 700 planets confirmed to orbit other stars, called exoplanets, only a handful are known to be rocky. (more…)

Stars Pop Onto the Scene in New WISE Image

By Guest PostJanuary 13, 2012Scienceamerican astronomical society, astronomers, bubbles, cosmic clouds, dave leisawitz, gas and dust, milky way galaxy, mosaic, NASA, natal clouds, nebulae, new star birth, newborn stars, public astronomy, radiation, space telescope, specimens, star formation, star forming clouds, triggered star formation, triggered star formation theory, wide field infrared survey explorer, wise, wise mosaic, xavier koenig

PASADENA, Calif. — A new, large mosaic from NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) showcases a vast stretch of cosmic clouds bubbling with new star birth. The region — a 1,000-square-degree chunk of our Milky Way galaxy — is home to numerous star-forming clouds, where massive stars have blown out bubbles in the gas and dust.

“Massive stars sweep up and destroy their natal clouds, but they continuously spark new stars to form along the way,” said WISE Mission Scientist Dave Leisawitz of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Leisawitz is co-author of a new paper reporting the results in the Astrophysical Journal. “Occasionally a new, massive star forms, perpetuating the sequence of events and giving rise to the dazzling fireworks display seen in this WISE mosaic.” (more…)

NASA Radar to Study Hawaii’s Most Active Volcano

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2012Scienceactive volcano, airborne radar, big island, deformation, dryden flight research center, earth surface, east rift zone, edwards, hawaii, interferometry, jet propulsion laboratory, kilauea volcano, NASA, pasadena, pulses of microwave energy, research aircraft, sensor, uavsar, uninhabited aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar

An airborne radar developed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has returned to Hawaii to continue its study of Kilauea volcano, Hawaii’s current most active volcano.

The Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, or UAVSAR, mounted in a pod under NASA’s G-III research aircraft from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., returned to Hawaii’s Big Island on Jan. 7. The one-week airborne campaign will help scientists better understand processes occurring under Earth’s surface at Kilauea. (more…)

NASA Twin Spacecraft on Final Approach for Moon Orbit

By Guest PostDecember 29, 2011Scienceapollo, cape canaveral air force station, crust, david lehman, denver, elliptical orbit, euphoria, evolution of the moon, grail, gravitational field, gravity recovery and interior laboratory, high resolution map, lockheed martin space systems, lunar orbit, lunar south pole, maria zuber, moon, NASA, new year eve, science objectives, twin spacecraft, ultra stable oscillator

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s twin spacecraft to study the moon from crust to core are nearing their New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day main-engine burns to place the duo in lunar orbit.

Named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), the spacecraft are scheduled to be placed in orbit beginning at 1:21 p.m. PST (4:21 p.m. EST) for GRAIL-A on Dec. 31, and 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST) for GRAIL-B the next day. (more…)

NASA Discovers First Earth-Size Planets Beyond Our Solar System

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2011Scienceastrophysical phenomena, blender, computer program, constellation lyra, cygnus, earth size planets, exoplanets, francois fressin, g type, Galaxy, habitable zone, harvard smithsonian center, jack lissauer, kepler 20e, kepler 20f, kepler mission, kepler science team, kepler space telescope, light years, liquid water, NASA, natalie batalha, neptune, planet mercury, planet system, planets like earth, san jose state university, solar system, spitzer space telescope, sun, venus

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun.

The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87 times the radius of Earth. Kepler-20f is slightly larger than Earth, measuring 1.03 times its radius. Both planets reside in a five-planet system called Kepler-20, approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. (more…)

NASA: Climate Change May Bring Big Ecosystem Changes

By Guest PostDecember 15, 2011Environmentbiodiversity, biome changes, biosphere, boreal forests, caltech, carbon, climate, climate change, climate model projections, computer modeling, desert, duane waliser, earth, eastern equatorial africa, ecological consequences, ecological sensitivity, ecosystem, element cycles, energy, environmental changes, forest, global climate simulations, grassland, great lakes, great plains, greenhouse gases, himalayas, hotspots, ice, jon bergengren, last glacial maximum, Madagascar, major ecological community type, mediterranean region, melting glaciers, migrate, model projections, modern climate changes, multiple generations, NASA, North America, northern hemisphere, plant communities, rising sea levels, southern south america, tibetan plateau, tundra, water

PASADENA, Calif. – By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth’s land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems from one major ecological community type – such as forest, grassland or tundra – toward another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.

Researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., investigated how Earth’s plant life is likely to react over the next three centuries as Earth’s climate changes in response to rising levels of human-produced greenhouse gases. Study results are published in the journal Climatic Change. (more…)

NASA Mars-Bound Rover Begins Research in Space

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2011Scienceaeroshell, astronauts, atomic and subatomic particles, boulder, cape canaveral, christian albrechts university, curiosity rover, distant supernovas, don hassler, doug mccuistion, earth, energetic particle radiation, gale crater, Germany, human missions, kiel, mars, mars science laboratory, microbes, monitoring, NASA, rad, radiation assessment detector, red planet, signs of life on mars, sources, southwest research institute, Space, space radiation, spacecraft, sun, surface of mars, trajectory

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s car-sized Curiosity rover has begun monitoring space radiation during its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to the Red Planet.

Curiosity launched on Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Mars Science Laboratory. The rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that monitors high-energy atomic and subatomic particles from the sun, distant supernovas and other sources. (more…)

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