NerdBeach

The Rings of … Mars?

20151125_mars_ring_1024
Image by Tushar Mittal using Celestia 2001–2010, Celestia Development Team

 

It could be that our close neighbor planet Mars is going to imitate Saturn and get rings of its own. That is, after Phobos is finally pulled apart by Mars. Already Phobos, the largest of Mars’ two moons, is lined with what is thought to be “lunar stretch marks”. According to Terry Hurford of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre,

We think that Phobos has already started to fail, and the first sign of this failure is the production of these grooves.

While Phobos may indeed be failing, you don’t need to panic just yet – the process will probably take place over the next 30 – 50 million years. While the theory of the destruction of Phobos due to tidal forces was raised years ago and discounted, new research into the core of Phobos has it as a rubble center surrounded by a powdery surface regolith a mere 100 meters thick. So, the tidal forces model now works, and it fits.

20151125_phobos
courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

 

And when Phobos does break apart, it looks like it will join other planets in our solar system in having a ringed structure. Once the destruction does take place, it will happen quickly, taking only a few days or weeks to complete. As researcher Benjamin Black was quoted in Nature,

If you were standing on the surface of Mars, you could grab a lawn chair and watch Phobos shearing out and spreading into a big circle.

Now wouldn’t that be a cosmic show to see?

 

One Day On Pluto (and Its Moon Charon)

Colorized Image of Pluto and Charon (courtesy NASA).
Colorized Image of Pluto and Charon (courtesy NASA)

 

Nasa has released a collage of photos that shows a full day of rotation for lonely Pluto and its moon Charon. The pictures were taken by NASA’s New Horizons space probe as it did a flyby. The images were taken on July 7th and 13th, using the spacecraft’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and its Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera.

24 hours of Pluto (courtesy NASA)
24 hours of Pluto (courtesy NASA)

 

The images are unique in that it shows the far side of both bodies, something before only seen in low resolution. During the flyby, the space probe was a mere 400,000 miles away from its target. Visible in the bottom images is the distinctive heart shaped feature known as Tombaugh Regio. This area was named in honor of astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto.

 

24 hours of Pluto's moon, Charon (courtesy NASA)
24 hours of Pluto’s moon, Charon (courtesy NASA)

 

It might be interesting to note that a day on Pluto (and Charon, which shares the timeframe) is equal to 6.4 Earth days. While it may be really cold there, at least you could probably get a lot done in a day. More information can be found on NASA’s website.

 

New Horizons

The New Horizons Spacecraft, launched January 19, 2006
The New Horizons Space Probe, launched January 19, 2006

New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA’s New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by S. Alan Stern.source:wikipedia

NASA Suborbital Telescope Catches Clearest View Yet of Sun’s Corona

NASA has managed to capture the sharpest images of our Sun’s corona ever, thanks to the rocket mounted High Resolution Coronal Imager (or Hi-C, if you will). The suborbital excursion lasted for only about 10 minutes, but the telescope managed to snag about 150 generous 16 megapixel images.

Given the picture subject, the images were captured in the high-ultraviolet range using a new optics set implementing a mirror array. The end result was the equivalent viewing of a mere 135 miles, way too close for physical comfort.

NASA had timed the photo session to coincide with peak solar activity, and the result is a beautiful glimpse into the activity on a large and very active sunspot. Check out the beautiful footage in the video below.

via engadget

Corona

A corona is a type of plasma “atmosphere” of the Sun or other celestial body, extending millions of kilometers into space, most easily seen during a total solar eclipse, but also observable in a coronagraph. The Latin root of the word corona means crown.

source:wikipedia

A New Moon for Pluto

Pluto, that once-planet frozen body hanging on at the edge of our solar system, may have a reason to celebrate today. NASA, using the Hubble Space Telescope, is reporting a brand new moon for the plutoid.

The newly discovered moon varies in width from 6 to 15 miles across, and it is tucked into a 58,000 mile diameter orbit of Pluto. If you are counting, this brings the total known moons of pluto moons to 5. Not bad for a small heavenly body.

The new moon has the official designation of  S/2012 (134340) 1, and it was discovered in nine separate Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 images taken on June 26, 27, 29 and July 7 and 9. The new moon joins Charon (the largest, discovered in 1979), Nix (2005), Hydra (2005), and P4, discovered in 2011 through Hubble data.

Even more importantly to NASA, knowledge of the new moon will help the NASA New Horizons spacecraft in 2015, when it makes a close flyby of Pluto at a dizzying 30,000 miles per hour. At those speeds even a small rock could spell disaster for the spacecraft. Let’s hope that those Plutonians aren’t carrying a grudge about that whole former planet thing…

Pluto

Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System (after Eris) and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun. Originally classified as the ninth planet from the Sun, Pluto was recategorized as a dwarf planet and plutoid due to the discovery that it is only one of several large bodies within the Kuiper belt.

source:wikipedia