The DPS conference in Pasadena is now in full swing. News and press releases are slowly trickling out of that conference, from New Scientist which reported on an Enceladus theory relating cosmic rays and Enceladus‘ jets to public releases at NASA’s Planetary Photojournal.
Here are some Cassini news from this conference:
PIA08329: In Saturn’s Shadow
Solscape
Double Impact May Explain Why Venus Has No Moon
One of the biggest mysteries in the solar system is why Venus has no moon. A new model suggests that our sister planet may have in fact had a moon, but that it was destroyed.
Article @ Scientific American
Infrared map of giant asteroid Ceres unveiled
The surface of the solar system’s largest asteroid, Ceres, has been mapped in infrared light in fine detail for the first time. The feat will pave the way for a better determination of the surface composition of Ceres, whose interior is believed to be 25% water ice. The 950-kilometre-wide space rock lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and is massive enough for its gravity to make it a sphere, a quality that nearly earned it planetary status in August 2006. The Hubble Space Telescope took visible light images of Ceres in 2003 and 2004 and also mapped the asteroid in ultraviolet light in 2001. These images show bright and dark patches on the asteroid, but astronomers still do not know exactly what the patches represent. Now astronomers led by Benoit Carry of the Paris-Meuden Observatory in France have taken a step towards solving the mystery by obtaining the first high-resolution images of Ceres in infrared light, which is better than visible or UV light at distinguishing chemicals. They used the Keck II telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii to obtain the images, which show features as small as 30 kilometres across. The infrared images show bright and dark patches that closely match what Hubble saw in visible light.
Source:
Surface mapping of asteroid Ceres with the Keck AO system
Carry, B., Dumas, C., Fulchignoni, M., Merline, W.
Presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences in Pasadena, California, October 8-13, 2006.
Images of Dwarf Planet Ceres
Hubble Examines the Closest Known Extrasolar Planet
The Hubble Space Telescope turned its gaze towards a relatively nearby Jupiter-sized world recently. The planet orbits the Sun-like star Epsilon Eridani, which is located only 10,5 light-years away. This makes the planet so close that it could be directly observable by Hubble and large ground-based observatories. The best opportunity will come in 2007, when the planet makes its closest approach to its parent star, and the reflected light should make it observable with our best instruments.
Hubble Observations Confirm that Planets Form from Disks Around Stars
Filme vom Kosmos
Mit einer gigantischen Überwachungskamera wollen Astronomen künftig Vorgänge am Nachthimmel erfassen. Ein entsprechendes Konsortium haben die Max-Planck-Institute in Heidelberg und Garching mit weiteren Partnern aus Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten gebildet. Ihre Arbeit soll unter anderem den ersten digitalen Farbfilm astronomischer Vorgänge liefern.
Pan-STARRS – PS1 Science Consortium
Getting closer to the cosmic connection to climate
A team at the Danish National Space Center has discovered how cosmic rays from exploding stars can help to make clouds in the atmosphere. The results support the theory that cosmic rays influence Earth’s climate.
Note: This new work is a severe blow to proponents of the enhanced greenhouse hypothesis and advocates of Anthropogenic Global Warming who worked hard to deny solar influence on global climate.
http://www.space.dtu.dk/English/Research/Research_divisions/Sun_Climate/SC_Getting_closer_to_the_cosmic_connection_to_climate.aspx
Planck to build on Nobel-prize-winning science
The 2006 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot for their work on NASA’s 1989 Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite. In 2008, ESA’s Planck satellite will launch and build on this award-winning legacy by showing cosmologists new details of the Universe’s origins.
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2006
Magnetic Islands Are Source of Mysterious High Speed Electrons
A team of scientists led by University of Maryland physics professor James Drake appear to have solved a key remaining mystery about how the interaction of magnetic fields produce the explosive releases of energy seen in solar flares, storms in the Earth’s magnetosphere and many other powerful cosmic events.
UM-Led Team Finds Source of Mysterious High Speed Electrons
Scientists Nudge Closer to the Edge of a Black Hole
NASA scientists and their international partners using the new Japanese Suzaku satellite have collected a startling new set of black hole observations, revealing details of twisted space and warped time never before seen with such precision. The observations include clocking the speed of a black hole’s spin rate and measuring the angle at which matter pours into the void, as well as evidence for a wall of X-ray light pulled back and flattened by gravity.
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/topstory/2006/spinning_blackhole.html
Mars Rover "Opportunity" snapped from orbit
The most powerful camera ever sent to another world has taken an amazing photo of one of NASA’s Rovers on Mars. The robotic explorer, called „Opportunity“, is pictured at the rim of a spectacular crater on the Red Planet in the aerial shot. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) took the stunning image with its HiRISE camera on Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006, just days after it began scanning the planet. HiRISE is so powerful that it clearly reveals „Opportunity“ and you can even see its tracks in the Martian sand at the edge of Victoria Crater. The crater, a 700-km wide asteroid impact site, is also revealed in great detail from the probe, flying 297 km above the surface of Mars.
„Victoria Crater“ at Meridiani Planum
NASA’s Mars Rover and Orbiter Team Examines Victoria Crater
HiRISE Camera on NASA Orbiter Gets Spectacular View of Rover at Victoria Crater