Much of the water and carbon dioxide that Mars had early in its history may still be locked up within the planet. In a paper published in the journal „Science“, researchers said that the rate of escape of water and carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere, as measured by an instrument on ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft, is only a small fraction of what was earlier believed. Scientists had previously thought that most of the carbon dioxide and water the planet had early in its history had been stripped from the atmosphere by solar winds. However, at the current rates of escape, only a small fraction of that original supply would have been lost. Researches argue that either much of the carbon dioxide and water is locked up in hidden subsurface deposits, or that other mechanisms stripped the planet of those volatiles.
Solscape
Lutetia asteroid in Rosetta’s spotlight
Earlier this month ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft had a first look at asteroid 21-Lutetia, one of the targets of its long mission. The onboard camera OSIRIS imaged the asteroid passing through its field of view during the spacecraft’s gradual approach to Mars. The planet will be reached on February 25, 2007, for the mission’s next gravity assist.
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosetta/Lutetia_asteroid_in_Rosetta_s_spotlight
Super Touch Screen (not only) for Google Earth
Last fall, Jeff Han demonstrated a touch-driven computer screen, which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips. Now, Jeff has formed a company called „Perceptive Pixel“ to bring this idea to the market. Recently, he was interviewed by „Fast Company“ and they have released this really awesome video demonstrating even more applications including Google Earth being used with a wall-sized touch screen.
HiRISE Camera Shows Mojave Crater Peak
The HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took a huge, detailed image of Mars‘ Mojave Crater on January 7, 2007. The image shows the central uplift structure in the crater. Rocks that form this peak were several kilometers beneath the surface until an impact formed the 60 kilometer-diameter crater just north of Mars‘ equator. The HiRISE image also shows that boulders as large as 15 meters across have eroded from the massive uplifted rock and rolled downslope.
http://hiroc.lpl.arizona.edu/images/PSP/diafotizo.php?ID=PSP_002101_1875
NASA moves up next shuttle launch
Shuttle managers decided Wednesday to move up the launch of the next shuttle mission by one day to March 15. The mission, STS-117, had been scheduled to lift off on the morning of March 16, but will now take place a day earlier to give the space agency additional time to launch the shuttle Atlantis before the launch window closes on March 29. The shuttle has to complete its mission to the ISS at least 72 hours before the April 9 launch of a Soyuz mission to the station, to avoid having both the shuttle and the Soyuz in the vicinity of the station at the same time. The goal of the 11-day shuttle mission is to attach a new truss segment and a set of solar arrays to the ISS.
Source: NASA
New Horizons' Jupiter images now online
As Emily Lakdawalla pointed out in her blog, all of New Horizons‘ most recently acquired Jupiter images are available on the New Horizons Science Operations Center website.
A Stellar Moment Frozen In Martian Time
An image of sunset on Mars, taken by Spirit, won in a public poll. This contest, and other new multimedia pieces, help mark the twin rovers‘ third anniversary on the red planet. On May 19th, 2005, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured a stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. The Panoramic Camera (PanCam) mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover’s 489th martian day, or sol.
https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/press/spirit/20050610a.html
Evidence of Galactic Collision Found
Astronomers surveying the nearby Andromeda galaxy have discovered an association of stars in its outskirts, which they believe to be part of a separate galaxy that merged with Andromeda about 700 million years ago. The discovery corresponds to computer models created by University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomer Mark Fardal, which simulate a dwarf galaxy merging with Andromeda.
Evidence of Ancient Galactic Collision Found, Confirmed by UMass Amherst Astronomer’s Model
New Technique Stores and Retrieves Entire Image from a Single Photon
Researchers at the University of Rochester have made an optics breakthrough that allows them to encode an entire image’s worth of data into a photon, slow the image down for storage, and then retrieve the image intact.
Ultra-Dense Optical Storage – on One Photon
Walking molecule now carries packages
A research team, led by UC Riverside’s Ludwig Bartels, was the first to design a molecule that can move in a straight line on a flat surface. Now this team has found a way to attach cargo: two CO2 molecules, making the nano-walker a molecule carrier.