Table of Contents

Planetary Science at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

News from Space

Opportunities for Students

Spotlight on Education

In Memoriam

Milestones

New and Noteworthy

Calendar

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The Lunar and Planetary Information Bulletin collects, synthesizes, and disseminates current research and findings in the planetary sciences to the research community, science libraries, educators, students, and the public. The Bulletin is dedicated to engaging, exciting, and educating those with a passion for the space sciences while developing future generations of explorers.

The Bulletin welcomes articles dealing with issues related to planetary science and exploration. Of special interest are articles describing web-based research and educational tools, meeting highlights and summaries, and descriptions of space missions. Peer-reviewed research articles, however, are not appropriate for publication in the Bulletin. Suggested topics can be e-mailed to the editors, who will provide guidelines for formatting and content.

Dr. Paul Schenk,
Scientific Editor (schenk@lpi.usra.edu)

Renée Dotson,
Production Editor (rdotson@hou.usra.edu)

Copy deadline for the next issue: February 15, 2015

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The Bulletin is published quarterly by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), 3600 Bay Area Boulevard, Houston TX 77058. Material in this issue may be copied without restraint for library, abstract service, education, or personal research purposes.

ISSN 1534-6587

The LPI is operated by the Universities Space Research Association under Award No. NNX08AC28A from the Science Mission Directorate of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this issue are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Planetary Science at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

— Lori S. Glaze, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Note from the Editors: This issue’s lead article is the fourth in a series of reports describing the history and current activities of the planetary research facilities funded by NASA and located nationwide. This issue features NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, which was NASA’s first established space center and which currently supports science and mission development for all four of NASA’s science divisions. — Paul Schenk and Renee Dotson

The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) was established in 1959 as NASA’s first new space center. In the earliest days, GSFC managed and operated the communication networks that supported the manned space flight program, including the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Today, Goddard employs ~3000 civil servants and ~10,000 contractors. Although most Goddard personnel work on the main campus in Greenbelt, Maryland, Goddard also has three additional campuses: the Wallops Flight Facility (Wallops Island, Virginia), the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (New York, New York), and the Independent Verification and Validation Facility (Fairmont, West Virginia), as well as operations at the White Sands Test Facility (Las Cruces, New Mexico). Goddard is unique among the NASA centers in that Goddard supports science and mission development from all four NASA science divisions: Earth Science, Planetary Science, Heliophysics, and Astrophysics.

The Solar System Exploration Division (SSED) at Goddard currently supports ~100 civil servant scientists as well as ~200 university scientists, postdocs, and contractors. The Division is divided into six laboratories, five of which are aligned with the types of planetary instruments for which Goddard has expertise: X-ray/gamma-ray detectors, infrared spectrometers, laser and lidar (atmospheric sounding and altimetry), magnetometers and radio receivers, and mass spectrometers. The sixth laboratory supports the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) network, as well as research in planetary geology and space geodetic applications, including Precision Orbit Determination. In addition to the six laboratories, SSED supports the Solar System Exploration Data Services Office, which coordinates the management and archiving of NASA space science data (including the Planetary Data System), and the Space Geodesy Project Office, which manages the operations of NASA’s Space Geodetic Network (comprising VLBI, Satellite Laser Ranging, the Global Navigation Satellite System, and the Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite system).

This timeline illustrates the GSFC SSED’s 50-year record of instruments, with strong contributions to both Earth and planetary spaceflight. The instruments, and missions on which they were or are being flown, are grouped into the six categories in which the Division has a world leadership role. Instruments with a lighter background have not yet launched. Credit: Jay Friedlander/NASA/GSFC.

Goddard’s SSED has a long history in scientific research, spaceflight instrument development, and spaceflight mission responsibilities, having built and flown 112 mission instruments, with another 7 currently being built. About half of the instruments have been flown to destinations beyond Earth’s orbit, with the rest supporting missions for Earth Science and Heliophysics. The SSED also pursues a wide range of activities that complement the instrument program. SSED personnel implement a broad program of theoretical and experimental research to investigate the solar system (including Earth) and to study the formation and evolution of planetary systems. Our innovative research spans across astrochemistry, planetary systems, planetary geodynamics, space geodesy, magnetospheres, comparative planetary studies, investigations of Earth as a planet, solar system data systems, and instrument development. We develop theoretical models of the origin and structure of solar systems, the varied objects in solar systems, and the processes that alter those objects. We design experimental approaches and hardware to test theories in the laboratory and using groundbased, aircraft, and spacebased platforms. We collect, interpret, and evaluate data gathered from missions and experiments; archive and disseminate the data; and provide expert user support to the community. SSED also supports a strong education and communication program to convey science mission results to the public and to inspire future generations of planetary scientists.

As part of the overall emphasis on science research, SSED engages in cross-cutting research activities including strong representation in multiple NASA science institutes. The Dynamic Response of the Environments at Asteroids, the Moon, and moons of Mars (DREAM2) team, led by William Farrell (GSFC SSED) is a node in the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (the original DREAM team was also a node in the precursor NASA Lunar Science Institute). The DREAM2 team incorporates over 30 science investigators from more than 10 academic institutions to study the space environment at targets of potential future human exploration. The science investigation is focused on plasma interactions, exospheres, radiation of exposed materials, space weathering, solar storms, and solar wind. Goddard’s SSED has maintained the Goddard Center for Astrobiology, led by Michael Mumma (GSFC SSED), as a node within the NASA Astrobiology Institute since 2003. The most recently selected team is focused on understanding Earth’s cometary sources of water and organic molecules. SSED also has a major role in NASA’s newest cross-disciplinary venture, the Exoplanet Research Coordination Network. One of the inaugural nodes of this network is led by Anthony Del Genio (GSFC Earth Science Division), with a focus on habitability of rocky planets and a comparative approach that explores the full range of climates present in our solar system.

The Goddard mass spectrometry program had a venerable start with the Pioneer Venus Orbiter, which studied our “sister” planet for more than 10 years. We have launched eight other mass spectrometers so far, including those for the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) and the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), as well as the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on the Curiosity Rover. We are currently developing the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument for the European ExoMars lander mission (scheduled to launch in 2018). The unique ability of mass spectrometry to produce fingerprints of molecules and compounds is helping to answer fundamental questions about the atmospheres of the Moon and Mars, including whether Mars ever had an environment capable of supporting life.

The SAM instrument suite, led by Principal Investigator (PI) Paul Mahaffy (GSFC SSED), is about the size of a microwave oven. The suite includes a quadrupole mass spectrometer and gas chromatograph built by Goddard. These elements are partnered with the Tunable Laser Spectrometer built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to provide unprecedented in situ gas and rock analyses on the surface of Mars. Left: SAM suite being lowered into the Curiosity Rover. Right: Location of the SAM solid sample inlet tubes on Curiosity. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Goddard has sustained a continuous program of designing and building magnetometers for five decades, resulting in the production of 66 flight instruments that have explored or are exploring the solar system from the inner reaches to the farthest edge and beyond. SSED is currently operating magnetometers on Voyager; MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER); MAVEN; Juno; Cassini; Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO); and the Van Allen Probes, and is developing magnetometers for Solar Probe Plus.

With infrared (IR) spectroscopy, we peer across the far reaches of space and into the atmospheres of planets and their satellites. Goddard has flown 11 IR spectrometers — indispensable tools for probing the composition, temperature, density, and motion of bodies in space. This list includes the Composite Infrared Spectrometer on Cassini, which continues to discover new phenomena in the Saturn system more than 15 years after launch, and the Thermal Infrared Sensor on Landsat 8. Now in development for the Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission is the OSIRIS-REx Visible and IR Spectrometer (OVIRS), led by PI Dennis Reuter (GSFC SSED), which will provide mineral and organic spectral maps of Bennu, the near-Earth asteroid target.

Goddard is also a leader in laser/lidar instrumentation, having built six space-flight instruments, including those on Mars Global Surveyor, MESSENGER, and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), which have set the standard in planetary altimetry. Additional instruments for Earth observations are currently in development for Icesat-2 and the International Space Station. Goddard SSED engages in end-to-end instrumentation, from developing concepts for ground, aircraft, and spaceflight to ensuring that instruments meet the science requirements to instrument calibration and validation. Applications for the Goddard laser instruments range from altimetry to imaging to trace gas analysis. The Goddard X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutron spectrometer program has launched 15 instruments to determine the elemental compositions of samples and measure the energies of particles on missions from Apollo 15 through MESSENGER and LRO.

The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) flying on LRO has provided geodetically referenced topography for the Moon with unparalleled precision and accuracy. This is a view of the farside of the Moon showing the South Pole Aitken Basin, an enormous impact basin thought to expose lunar mantle material from early in the Moon’s history. Credit: NASA/GSFC.

Over the last decade, Goddard’s SSED has expanded its planetary exploration portfolio beyond instrument development and into mission management. The first planetary mission to be managed by Goddard is LRO. Goddard has also won two competed planetary science missions: MAVEN and OSIRIS-REx. Goddard’s SSED also supports Earth Science missions, such as the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) lidar, which will observe the Earth from the International Space Station.

The LRO mission was initially directed to Goddard by the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD) (now part of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate) with a mission to support the extension of the human presence in the solar system. Goddard built the LRO spacecraft and LOLA instrument and managed the mission. LRO was launched in 2009, carrying six instruments and one technology demonstration to characterize the lunar environment and prepare for humans to return to the Moon. After the initial ESMD mission was complete, LRO began a primary science mission. LRO is now in its second extended science mission phase. Throughout its lifetime, LRO has returned ~500 terabytes of data (more than twice the volume of data returned from all other planetary missions combined), including images with very high spatial resolution and the most comprehensive topographic dataset in existence for any planetary body (including Earth).

LRO has provided important new data on the Moon’s environment in preparation for future manned exploration. In addition, LRO has changed the way we think of the Moon, including discoveries that the lithosphere is still contracting today, and evidence of recent volcanism within the last 100 million years. Credit: NASA/GSFC.

In November 2013, Goddard launched MAVEN, a Mars Scout mission led by PI Bruce Jakosky of the University of Colorado/Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics. Goddard partnered with Lockheed Martin, who built the MAVEN spacecraft. Goddard provided mission management, as well as a mass spectrometer and a magnetometer. The primary MAVEN objective is to explore the Red Planet’s upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and interactions with the Sun and solar wind. Shortly after MAVEN’s successful Mars orbit insertion on September 21, 2014, MAVEN positively detected eight different types of metal ions believed to have been left behind by Comet Siding Spring, an Oort cloud comet that flew past Mars on October 19, 2014.

The OSIRIS-REx mission, led by PI Dante Lauretta of the University of Arizona, is a New Frontiers mission to return samples from Bennu, a carbon-rich asteroid, back to Earth. Goddard has again partnered with Lockheed Martin, who is building the spacecraft. Goddard provides mission management as well as the OVIRS instrument. The primary objective of OSIRIS-REx is to look for information on the earliest history of the solar system. The mission is currently in the development phase, with a planned launch in September 2016. The mission includes instrumentation for remote observations and characterization of Bennu to provide contextual information about the asteroid and to aid in selection of an appropriate sample location. OSIRIS-REx will deploy the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism in order to collect at least 60 grams of sample material. After stowage of the sample in the Sample Return Capsule, OSIRIS-REx begins the trip back to Earth where the sample material can be analyzed to look for the organic building blocks of life.

Artist’s representation of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft preparing to take a sample from asteroid Bennu. Credit: NASA/GSFC/University of Arizona.

The Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) is an Earth Venture Instrument led by PI Ralph Dubayah of the University of Maryland. GEDI is a Goddard-built lidar altimeter, scheduled to fly on the International Space Station in 2018, which provides the horizontal and vertical structure of Earth’s forests to quantify the impact that trees have on the global carbon budget. In particular, GEDI is focused on regrowth of forests following disturbances.

Instrumentation and robotic exploration are humanity’s way of sensing and understanding our own planet and solar system, and ultimately, those that lie beyond. Five decades of Goddard experience in building instruments and launching spacecraft to explore the solar system and study Earth have transformed views of our planet and ourselves. As technology continues to improve, so does our ability to probe space and our place in it. Our capacity to discern how Earth is similar to and yet different from other planetary bodies increases, as does our knowledge about the current and likely future state of Earth. In addition to the traditional Goddard roles in instrument and mission support, SSED scientists continue to push the boundaries of scientific understanding, building on cross-disciplinary expertise.

About the Cover

Top: The Juno Magnetometer, led by Jack Connerney (GSFC SSED), will map Jupiter’s magnetic field and provide information on the dynamics of Jupiter’s interior. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Middle: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has built and flown instruments in support of missions that have studied our Sun, and explored every planet in our solar system. Credit: Britt Griswold/NASA/Goddard.

Lower left: The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission observes how the martian atmosphere and ionosphere respond to variations in solar energy and measures the loss of atmospheric gases to space. Credit: NASA/GSFC/University of Colorado Boulder.

Lower right: The heart of the Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA) instrument that will fly on the ExoMars rover is this set of highly compact mass spectrometer rods. Credit: Pat Izzo/NASA/GSFC.

About the Author

Lori Glaze is Deputy Director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Prior to joining Goddard in 2007, she was the Vice President of Proxemy Research for 11 years. Her research interests focus on theoretical modeling of physical volcanic processes on the terrestrial planets. She is particularly interested in better understanding our sister planet, Venus, and is currently serving as the chair of the Venus Exploration Analysis Group.

News from Space

NASA Rolls Out Enhanced, Mobile-Friendly Climate Site

NASA’s Global Climate Change website tracks key indicators of climate change, include the retreat of glaciers and the shrinking of ice sheets around the world. Credit: Shutterstock.

NASA has relaunched its Webby Award-winning website, Global Climate Change, with enhanced interactive features that play on any mobile device, state-of-the-art visuals, and new sections on climate change solutions and the people behind the science. First launched in 2008, the Global Climate Change website (http://climate.nasa.gov) provides easy-to-understand information about the causes and effects of climate change and the ways NASA studies them, along with the latest climate news from the agency, graphics and visualizations.

Highlights of the redesign include (1) an improved Vital Signs dashboard, providing interactive charts with continuously updated data on atmospheric carbon dioxide, sea level rise, Arctic ice extent, global temperature, and other key indicators of climate change; (2) visualizations of change over time from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio; (3) a section that focuses on science and technology advances that are providing essential data for adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change; and (4) ”Making a Difference,” a section that highlights NASA’s climate researchers and the work they do. The updated site retains popular features of the earlier version, including the Images of Change gallery, the Climate Time Machine, and the Eyes on the Earth data visualization tool. The website is optimized for most mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

“NASA is a world leader in Earth system science and climate research, and it’s important that we make the content of our work accessible to the general public,” said Peg Luce, deputy director of NASA’s Earth Science Division. “The continuing popularity and recognition of this site underscores the need for credible resources with timely climate change information.”

For more information on NASA’s Earth Science Program, visit http://science.nasa.gov/earth-science/ and http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow/.

New Map Shows Frequency of Small Asteroid Impacts, Provides Clues on Larger Asteroid Population

A map released in November by NASA’s Near Earth Object (NEO) Program reveals that small asteroids frequently enter and disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere with random distribution around the globe. Released to the scientific community, the map visualizes data gathered by U.S. government sensors from 1994 to 2013. The data indicate that Earth’s atmosphere was impacted by small (1–20 meters)asteroids, resulting in a bolide (or fireball), on 556 separate occasions in a 20-year period. Almost all asteroids of this size disintegrate in the atmosphere and are usually harmless. The notable exception was the Chelyabinsk event, which was the largest asteroid to hit Earth in this period. The new data could help scientists better refine estimates of the distribution of the sizes of NEOs, including larger ones that could pose a danger to Earth.

This diagram maps the data gathered from 1994 to 2013 on small asteroids impacting Earth’s atmosphere to create very bright meteors, technically called “bolides” and commonly referred to as “fireballs.” Sizes of red dots (daytime impacts) and blue dots (nighttime impacts) are proportional to the optical radiated energy of impacts measured in billions of Joules (GJ) of energy, and show the location of impacts from objects
about 1 meter (3 feet) to almost 20 meters (60 feet) in size. Credit: NASA Planetary Science Division.

Finding and characterizing hazardous asteroids to protect our home planet is a high priority for NASA. It is one of the reasons NASA has increased by a factor of 10 investments in asteroid detection, characterization, and mitigation activities over the last five years. In addition, NASA has aggressively developed strategies and plans with its partners in the U.S. and abroad to detect, track, and characterize NEOs. These activities will help identify NEOs that might pose a risk of Earth impact, and further help inform developing options for planetary defense.

The public can help participate in the hunt for potentially hazardous NEOs through the Asteroid Grand Challenge, which aims to create a plan to find all asteroid threats to human populations and know what to do about them. NASA is also pursuing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), which will identify, redirect, and send astronauts to explore an asteroid. Among its many exploration goals, the mission could demonstrate basic planetary defense techniques for asteroid deflection.

For more information about the map and data, visit http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov. For details about ARM and the Asteroid Grand Challenge, visit http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative.

NASA Mission Finds Widespread Evidence of Young Lunar Volcanism

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has provided researchers with strong evidence that the Moon’s volcanic activity slowed gradually instead of stopping abruptly a billion years ago. Scores of distinctive rock deposits observed by LRO are estimated to be less than 100 million years old. This
time period corresponds to Earth’s Cretaceous period, the heyday of dinosaurs. Some areas may be
less than 50 million years old. Details of the study are published online in the October 12 edition of
Nature Geoscience.

The feature called Maskelyne is one of many newly discovered young volcanic deposits on the Moon. Called irregular mare patches, these areas are thought to be remnants of small basaltic eruptions that occurred much later than the commonly accepted end of lunar volcanism, 1 to 1.5 billion years ago. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona
State University.

The deposits are scattered across the Moon’s dark volcanic plains and are characterized by a mixture of smooth, rounded, shallow mounds next to patches of rough, blocky terrain. Because of this combination of textures, the researchers refer to these unusual areas as irregular mare patches. The features are too small to be seen from Earth, averaging less than 500 meters (1640 feet) across in their largest dimension. One of the largest, a well-studied area called Ina, was imaged from lunar orbit by Apollo 15 astronauts. Ina appeared to be a one-of-a-kind feature until researchers from Arizona State University in Tempe and Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in Germany spotted many similar regions in high-resolution images taken by the two Narrow Angle Cameras that are part of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). The team identified a total of 70 irregular mare patches on the nearside of the Moon. The large number of these features and their wide distribution strongly suggest that late-stage volcanic activity was not an anomaly but an important part of the Moon’s geologic history.

The numbers and sizes of the craters within these areas indicate the deposits are relatively recent. Based on a technique that links such crater measurements to the ages of Apollo and Luna samples, three of the irregular mare patches are thought to be less than 100 million years old, and perhaps less than 50 million years old in the case of Ina. The steep slopes leading down from the smooth rock layers to the rough terrain are consistent with the young age estimates. In contrast, the volcanic plains surrounding these distinctive regions are attributed to volcanic activity that started about 3.5 billion years ago and ended roughly 1 billion years ago. At that point, all volcanic activity on the Moon was thought to cease.

Several earlier studies suggested that Ina was quite young and might have formed due to localized volcanic activity. However, in the absence of other similar features, Ina was not considered an indication of widespread volcanism. The findings have major implications for the Moon’s interior temperature distribution.

“The existence and age of the irregular mare patches tell us that the lunar mantle had to remain hot enough to provide magma for the small-volume eruptions that created these unusual young features,” said Sarah Braden, a recent Arizona State University graduate and the lead author of the study.

To access the complete collection of LROC images, visit http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/. For more information about LRO, visit http://www.nasa.gov/lro.

Mars Spacecraft Reveal Comet Flyby Effects on Martian Atmosphere

Artist’s concept of Comet Siding Spring approaching Mars, shown with NASA’s orbiters preparing to make science observations of this unique encounter. Credit: NASA/JPL.

Two NASA and one European spacecraft that obtained the first up-close observations of a comet flyby of Mars on October 19 have gathered new information about the basic properties of the comet’s nucleus and directly detected the effects on the martian atmosphere. Data from observations carried out by NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and a radar instrument on the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Mars Express spacecraft have revealed that debris from the comet added a temporary and very strong layer of ions to the ionosphere, the electrically charged layer high above Mars. In these observations, scientists were able to make a direct connection from the input of debris from a specific meteor shower to the formation of this kind of transient layer in response; that is a first on any planet, including Earth.

Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring traveled from the most distant region of our solar system, called the Oort cloud, and made a close approach around 2:27 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) within about 139,500 kilometers (87,000 miles) of the Red Planet. This is less than half the distance between Earth and our Moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth. Dust from the comet impacted Mars and was vaporized high in the atmosphere, producing what was likely an impressive meteor shower. This debris resulted in significant temporary changes to the planet’s upper atmosphere and possible longer-term perturbations. Earth-based telescopes and a host of space-based telescopes also observed the unique celestial object.

“This historic event allowed us to observe the details of this fast-moving Oort cloud comet in a way never before possible using our existing Mars missions,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “Observing the effects on Mars of the comet’s dust slamming into the upper atmosphere makes me very happy that we decided to put our spacecraft on the other side of Mars at the peak of the dust tail passage and out of harm’s way.”

The MAVEN spacecraft, recently arrived at Mars, detected the comet encounter in two ways. The remote-sensing Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph observed intense ultraviolet emission from magnesium and iron ions high in the atmosphere in the aftermath of the meteor shower. Not even the most intense meteor storms on Earth have produced as strong a response as this one. The emission dominated Mars’ ultraviolet spectrum for several hours after the encounter and then dissipated over the next two days. MAVEN was also able to directly sample and determine the composition of some of the comet dust in Mars’ atmosphere. Analysis of these samples by the spacecraft’s Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer detected eight different types of metal ions, including sodium, magnesium, and iron. These are the first direct measurements of the composition of dust from an Oort cloud comet. The Oort cloud, well beyond the outermost planets that surround our Sun, is a spherical region of icy objects believed to be material left over from the formation of the solar system.

Elsewhere above Mars, a joint U.S. and Italian instrument on Mars Express observed a huge increase in the density of electrons following the comet’s close approach. This instrument, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS), saw a huge jump in the electron density in the ionosphere a few hours after the comet rendezvous. This spike occurred at a substantially lower altitude than the normal density peak in the martian ionosphere. The increased ionization, like the effects observed by MAVEN, appears to be the result of fine particles from the comet burning up in the atmosphere. MRO’s Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARAD) also detected the enhanced ionosphere. Images from the instrument were smeared by the passage of the radar signals through the temporary ion layer created by the comet’s dust. SHARAD scientists used this smearing to determine that the electron density of the ionosphere on the planet’s nightside, where the observations were made, was 5 to 10 times higher than usual.

Studies of the comet itself, made with MRO’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, revealed the nucleus is smaller than the expected 2 kilometers (1.2 miles). The HiRISE images also indicate a rotation period for the nucleus of eight hours, which is consistent with recent preliminary observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.

MRO’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) also observed the comet to see whether signs of any particular chemical constituents stood out in its spectrum. Team members said the spectrum appears to show a dusty comet with no strong emission lines at their instrument’s sensitivity.

Next NASA Mars Mission Reaches Milestone

Technicians in a Lockheed Martin clean room near Denver prepare NASA’s InSight Mars lander for propulsion proof and leak testing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Lockheed Martin.

NASA’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission has begun the assembly, test, and launch operations (ATLO) phase of its development, on track for a March 2016 launch to Mars. The lander, its aeroshell, and cruise stage are being assembled by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

“Reaching this stage that we call
ATLO is a critical milestone,” said InSight Project Manager Tom Hoffman at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “This is a very satisfying point of the mission as we transition from many teams working on their individual elements to integrating these elements into a functioning system. The subsystems are coming from all over the globe, and the ATLO team works to integrate them into the flight vehicle. We will then move rapidly to rigorous testing when the spacecraft has
been assembled, and then to the
launch preparations.”

Over the next six months, technicians at Lockheed Martin will add subsystems such as avionics, power, telecommunications, mechanisms, thermal systems, and navigation systems onto the spacecraft. The propulsion system was installed earlier this year on the lander’s main structure.

The NASA Discovery-class mission is a terrestrial planet explorer that will address one of the most fundamental issues of planetary and solar system science: understanding the processes that shaped the rocky planets of the inner solar system (including Earth) more than four billion years ago. To investigate the planet’s interior, the stationary lander will carry a robotic arm that will deploy surface and burrowing instruments contributed by France and Germany. The national space agencies of France and Germany — Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), respectively — are partnering with NASA by providing InSight’s two main science instruments.

The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) will be built by CNES in partnership with DLR and the space agencies of Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It will measure waves of ground motion carried through the interior of the planet, from “marsquakes” and meteor impacts. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, from DLR, will measure heat coming toward the surface from the planet’s interior.

Guided by images of the surroundings taken by the lander, InSight’s robotic arm will place the seismometer on the surface and then place a protective covering over it to minimize effects of wind and temperature on the sensitive instrument. The arm will also put the heat-flow probe in position to hammer itself into the ground to a depth of 3 to 5 meters (or yards).

Another experiment will use the radio link between InSight and NASA’s Deep Space Network antennas on Earth to measure precisely a wobble in Mars’ rotation that could reveal whether the planet has a molten or solid core. Wind and temperature sensors from Spain’s Centro de Astrobiologia and a pressure sensor will monitor weather at the landing site, and a magnetometer will measure magnetic disturbances caused by the martian ionosphere.

For more information, visit http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov.

NASA Mission Provides Its First Look at Martian Upper Atmosphere

Three views of an escaping atmosphere, obtained by MAVEN’s Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph. By observing all the products of water and carbon dioxide breakdown, MAVEN’s remote sensing team can characterize the processes that drive atmospheric loss on Mars. Credit: University of Colorado/NASA.

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft has provided scientists their first look at a storm of energetic solar particles at Mars, produced unprecedented ultraviolet images of the tenuous oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon coronas surrounding the Red Planet, and yielded a comprehensive map of highly-variable ozone in the atmosphere underlying the coronas. The spacecraft, which entered Mars’ orbit September 21, now is lowering its orbit and testing its instruments. MAVEN was launched to Mars in November 2013, to help solve the mystery of how the Red Planet lost most of its atmosphere.

“All the instruments are showing data quality that is better than anticipated at this early stage of the mission,” said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN Principal Investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder. “All instruments have now been turned on — although not yet fully checked out — and are functioning nominally. It’s turning out to be an easy and straightforward spacecraft to fly, at least so far. It really looks as if we’re headed for an exciting science mission.”

Solar energetic particles (SEPs) are streams of high-speed particles blasted from the sun during explosive solar activity like flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Around Earth, SEP storms can damage the sensitive electronics on satellites. At Mars, they are thought to be one possible mechanism for driving atmospheric loss. A solar flare on September 26 produced a CME that was observed by NASA satellites on both sides of the Sun. Computer models of the CME propagation predicted the disturbance and the accompanying SEPs would reach Mars on September 29. MAVEN’s Solar Energetic Particle instrument was able to observe the onset of the event that day.

“After traveling through interplanetary space, these energetic particles of mostly protons deposit their energy in the upper atmosphere of Mars,” said SEP instrument lead Davin Larson of the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. “A SEP event like this typically occurs every couple weeks. Once all the instruments are turned on, we expect to also be able to track the response of the upper atmosphere to them.”

The hydrogen and oxygen coronas of Mars are the tenuous outer fringe of the planet’s upper atmosphere, where the edge of the atmosphere meets space. In this region, atoms that were once a part of carbon dioxide or water molecules near the surface can escape to space. These molecules control the climate, so following them allows us to understand the history of Mars over the last four billion years and to track the change from a warm and wet climate to the cold, dry climate we see today. MAVEN observed the edges of the martian atmosphere using the Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph (IUVS), which is sensitive to the sunlight reflected by these atoms.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/maven.

Geologic Maps of Vesta from Dawn Mission Published

This high-resolution geological map of Vesta is derived from Dawn spacecraft data. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU.

Images from NASA’s Dawn mission have been used to create a series of high-resolution geological maps of the large asteroid Vesta, revealing the variety of surface features in unprecedented detail. These maps are included with a series of 11 scientific papers published in a special issue of the journal Icarus.

Geological mapping is a technique used to derive the geologic history of a planetary object from detailed analysis of surface morphology, topography, color and brightness information. A team of 14 scientists mapped the surface of Vesta using Dawn spacecraft data, led by three NASA-funded participating scientists: David A. Williams of Arizona State University, Tempe; R. Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona; and W. Brent Garry of the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. “The geologic mapping campaign at Vesta took about two-and-a-half years to complete, and the resulting maps enabled us to recognize a geologic timescale of Vesta for comparison to other planets,” said Williams.

Scientists discovered through these maps that impacts from several large meteorites have shaped Vesta’s history. Asteroids like Vesta are remnants of the formation of the solar system, giving scientists a peek at its history. Asteroids could also harbor molecules that are the building blocks of life and reveal clues about the origins of life on Earth.

The geologic mapping of Vesta is enabled by images obtained by the framing camera provided by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research of the German Max Planck Society and the German Aerospace Center. This camera takes panchromatic images and seven bands of color-filtered images. Stereo photos are used to create topographic models of the surface that aid in the geologic interpretation.

Vesta’s geologic timescale is determined by the sequence of large impact events, primarily by the Veneneia and Rheasilvia impacts in Vesta’s early history and the Marcia impact in its late history. The oldest crust on Vesta pre-dates the Veneneia impact.The relative timescale is supplemented by model-based absolute ages from two different approaches that apply crater statistics to date the surface.

“This mapping was crucial for getting a better understanding of Vesta’s geological history, as well
as providing context for the compositional information that we received from other instruments on
the spacecraft: the visible and infrared (VIR) mapping spectrometer and the gamma-ray and neutron
detector (GRaND),” said Carol Raymond, Dawn’s deputy principal investigator at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory.

The objective of NASA’s Dawn mission is to characterize the two most massive objects in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter: Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The spacecraft launched in 2007. Vesta, orbited by the Dawn spacecraft between July 2011 and September 2012, was thought to be the source of a unique set of basaltic meteorites (called HEDs, for howardite-eucrite-diogenite), and Dawn confirmed the Vesta-HED connection.

The Dawn spacecraft is currently on its way to Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. Dawn will arrive at Ceres in March 2015. For more information, visit http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Jupiter’s Red Spot is Likely a Sunburn, Not a Blush

Research suggests effects of sunlight produce the color of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot. The feature’s clouds are much higher than those elsewhere on the planet, and its vortex nature confines the reddish particles once they form. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.

The ruddy color of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is likely a product of simple chemicals being broken apart by sunlight in the planet’s upper atmosphere, according to a new analysis of data from NASA’s Cassini mission. The results contradict the other leading theory for the origin of the spot’s striking color — that the reddish chemicals come from beneath Jupiter’s clouds.

The results were presented in November by Kevin Baines, a Cassini team scientist based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), during at the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Science (DPS) Meeting in Tucson, Arizona. Baines and JPL colleagues Bob Carlson and Tom Momary arrived at their conclusions using a combination of data from Cassini’s December 2000 Jupiter flyby and laboratory experiments.

In the lab, the researchers blasted ammonia and acetylene gases — chemicals known to exist on Jupiter — with ultraviolet light, to simulate the Sun’s effects on these materials at the extreme heights of clouds in the Great Red Spot. This produced a reddish material, which the team compared to the Great Red Spot as observed by Cassini’s Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). They found that the light-scattering properties of their red concoction nicely matched a model of the Great Red Spot in which the red-colored material is confined to the uppermost reaches of the giant cyclone-like feature.

“Our models suggest most of the Great Red Spot is actually pretty bland in color, beneath the upper cloud layer of reddish material,” said Baines. “Under the reddish ‘sunburn’ the clouds are probably whitish or grayish.” A coloring agent confined to the top of the clouds would be inconsistent with the competing theory, which posits that the spot’s red color is due to upwelling chemicals formed deep beneath the visible cloud layers, he said. If red material were being transported from below, it should be present at other altitudes as well, which would make the red spot redder still.

Jupiter is composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with just a sprinkling of other elements. Scientists are interested in understanding what combinations of elements are responsible for the hues seen in Jupiter’s clouds, as this would provide insights into the giant planet’s make-up.

Baines and colleagues initially set out to determine if the Great Red Spot’s color might derive from Sun-induced breakdown of a more complex molecule, ammonium hydrosulfide, which makes up one of Jupiter’s main cloud layers. They quickly found that instead of a red color, the products their experiment produced were a brilliant shade of green. This surprising negative result prompted the researchers to try simple combinations of ammonia with hydrocarbons that are common at Jupiter’s high altitudes. Breaking down ammonia and acetylene with ultraviolet light turned out to best fit the data collected by Cassini.

The Great Red Spot is a long-lived feature in Jupiter’s atmosphere that is as wide as two Earths. Jupiter possesses three main cloud layers, which occupy specific altitudes in its skies; from highest to lowest they are ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide, and water clouds.

As for why the intense red color is seen only in the Great Red Spot and a few much smaller spots on the planet, the researchers think altitude plays a key role. “The Great Red Spot is extremely tall,” Baines said. “It reaches much higher altitudes than clouds elsewhere on Jupiter.” The team thinks the spot’s great heights both enable and enhance the reddening. Its winds transport ammonia ice particles higher into the atmosphere than usual, where they are exposed to much more of the Sun’s ultraviolet light. In addition, the vortex nature of the spot confines particles, preventing them from escaping. This causes the redness of the spot’s cloud tops to increase beyond what might otherwise be expected.

Other areas of Jupiter display a mixed palette of oranges, browns, and even shades of red. Baines says these are places where high, bright clouds are known to be much thinner, allowing views to depths in the atmosphere where more colorful substances exist.

More information about Cassini is available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.

Cassini Sails into New Ocean Adventures on Titan

Cassini radar data reveal the depth of a liquid methane/ethane sea on Saturn’s moon Titan near the mouth of a large, flooded river valley. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell.

NASA’s Cassini mission continues its adventures in extraterrestrial oceanography with new findings about the hydrocarbon seas on Saturn’s moon Titan. During a flyby in August, the spacecraft sounded the depths near the mouth of a flooded river valley and observed new, bright features in the seas that might be related to the mysterious feature that researchers dubbed the “magic island.” The findings were presented at the November DPS meeting.

To the delight of Cassini scientists, two new bright features appeared in Titan’s largest sea, Kraken Mare, during the August 21 flyby. In contrast to a previously reported bright, mystery feature in another of Titan’s large seas, Ligeia Mare, the new features in Kraken Mare were observed in both radar data and images from Cassini’s Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS). Having observations at two different wavelengths provides researchers with important clues to the nature of these enigmatic objects. The VIMS data suggest the new features might have similarities to places in and around the seas that the Cassini team has interpreted as waves or wet ground. The observations support two of the possible explanations the team thinks are most likely — that the features might be waves or floating debris.

Unfortunately for mystery lovers, the August Titan flyby marked the final opportunity for Cassini’s radar to observe Kraken Mare. However, the spacecraft is scheduled to observe the original “magic island” feature in Ligeia Mare once more, in January 2015. The August Titan flyby also included a segment designed to collect altimetry (or height) data, using the spacecraft’s radar instrument along a 200-kilometer (120-mile) shore-to-shore track of Kraken Mare. For a 40-kilometer (25-mile) segment of this data along the sea’s eastern shoreline, Cassini’s radar beam bounced off the sea bottom and back to the spacecraft, revealing the sea’s depth in that area. This region, which is near the mouth of a large, flooded river valley, showed depths of 20 to 35 meters (66 to 115 feet). Cassini will perform this experiment one last time in January 2015, to try to measure the depth of Punga Mare. Punga Mare is the smallest of three large seas in Titan’s far north, and the only sea whose depth has not been observed
by Cassini.

Scientists think that, for the areas in which Cassini did not observe a radar echo from the seafloor, Kraken Mare might be too deep for the radar beam to penetrate. In effect, the signal over this region might simply have been absorbed by the liquid, which is mostly methane and ethane. The altimetry data for the area in and around Kraken Mare also showed relatively steep slopes leading down to the sea, which also suggests the Kraken Mare might indeed be quite deep.

NASA Finds Methane Ice Cloud in Titan’s Stratosphere

This cloud in the stratosphere over the north pole of Titan is similar to Earth’s polar stratospheric clouds. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona/LPGNantes.

NASA scientists have identified an unexpected high-altitude methane ice cloud on Saturn’s moon Titan that is similar to exotic clouds found far above Earth’s poles. This lofty cloud, imaged by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, was part of the winter cap of condensation over Titan’s north pole. Now, eight years after spotting this mysterious bit of atmospheric fluff, researchers have determined that it contains methane ice, which produces a much denser cloud than the ethane ice previously identified there.

“The idea that methane clouds could form this high on Titan is completely new,” said Carrie Anderson, a Cassini participating scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of the study, which appeared in the journal Icarus. “Nobody considered that possible before.”

Methane clouds were already known to exist in Titan’s troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. Like rain and snow clouds on Earth, those clouds form through a cycle of evaporation and condensation, with vapor rising from the surface, encountering cooler and cooler temperatures and falling back down as precipitation. On Titan, however, the vapor at work is methane instead of water.

The newly identified cloud instead developed in the stratosphere, the layer above the troposphere. Earth has its own polar stratospheric clouds, which typically form above the North Pole and South Pole between 15 and 25 kilometers (49,000 and 82,000 feet) — well above cruising altitude for airplanes. These rare clouds don’t form until the temperature drops to –78°C (–108°F). Other stratospheric clouds had been identified on Titan already, including a very thin, diffuse cloud of ethane, a chemical formed after methane breaks down. Delicate clouds made from cyanoacetylene and hydrogen cyanide, which form from reactions of methane byproducts with nitrogen molecules, also have been found there.

But methane clouds were thought unlikely in Titan’s stratosphere. Because the troposphere traps most of the moisture, stratospheric clouds require extreme cold. Even the stratosphere temperature of –203°C (–333°F), observed by Cassini just south of the equator, was not frigid enough to allow the scant methane in this region of the atmosphere to condense into ice.

What Anderson and her Goddard co-author, Robert Samuelson, noted is that temperatures in Titan’s lower stratosphere are not the same at all latitudes. Data from Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer and the spacecraft’s radio science instrument showed that the high-altitude temperature near the north pole was much colder than that just south of the equator. It turns out that this temperature difference — as much as 6°C (11°F) — is more than enough to yield methane ice.

The mechanism for forming these high-altitude clouds appears to be different from what happens in the troposphere. Titan has a global circulation pattern in which warm air in the summer hemisphere wells up from the surface and enters the stratosphere, slowly making its way to the winter pole. There, the air mass sinks back down, cooling as it descends, which allows the stratospheric methane clouds to form.

“Cassini has been steadily gathering evidence of this global circulation pattern, and the identification of this new methane cloud is another strong indicator that the process works the way we think it does,” said Michael Flasar, Goddard scientist and principal investigator for Cassini’s Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS).

Like Earth’s stratospheric clouds, this methane cloud was located near the winter pole, above 65°N latitude. Anderson and Samuelson estimate that this type of cloud system — which they call subsidence-induced methane clouds (SIMCs) — could develop between 30 and 50 kilometers (98,000 to 164,000 feet) in altitude above Titan’s surface.

“Titan continues to amaze with natural processes similar to those on the Earth, yet involving materials different from our familiar water,” said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “As we approach southern winter solstice on Titan, we will further explore how these cloud formation processes might vary with season.”

Hubble Telescope Finds Potential Kuiper Belt Targets for New Horizons Pluto Mission

This is an artist’s impression of a Kuiper belt object (KBO), located on the outer rim of our solar system at a staggering distance of 6.5 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) from the Sun. A Hubble Space Telescope survey uncovered three KBOs that are potentially reachable by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft after it passes by Pluto in mid-2015. Credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI).

Peering out to the dim, outer reaches of our solar system, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered three Kuiper belt objects (KBOs) that the agency’s New Horizons spacecraft could potentially visit after it flies by Pluto in July 2015. The KBOs were detected through a dedicated Hubble observing program by a New Horizons search team that was awarded telescope time for this purpose.

“This has been a very challenging search and it’s great that in the end Hubble could accomplish a detection — one NASA mission helping another,” said Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission.

The Kuiper belt is a vast rim of primordial debris encircling our solar system. KBOs belong to a unique class of solar system objects that have never been visited by spacecraft and that contain clues to the origin of our solar system. The KBOs that Hubble found are each about 10 times larger than typical comets, but only about 1–2% the size of Pluto. Unlike asteroids, KBOs have not been heated by the Sun and are thought to represent a pristine, well-preserved deep-freeze sample of what the outer solar system was like following its birth 4.6 billion years ago. The KBOs found in the Hubble data are thought to be the building blocks of dwarf planets such as Pluto.

The New Horizons team started to look for suitable KBOs in 2011 using some of the largest groundbased telescopes on Earth. They found several dozen KBOs, but none was reachable within the fuel supply available onboard the New Horizons spacecraft.

“We started to get worried that we could not find anything suitable, even with Hubble, but in the end the space telescope came to the rescue,” said New Horizons science team member John Spencer of SwRI. “There was a huge sigh of relief when we found suitable KBOs; we are ‘over the moon’ about this detection.”

Following an initial proof of concept of the Hubble pilot observing program in June, the New Horizons Team was awarded telescope time by the Space Telescope Science Institute for a wider survey in July. When the search was completed in early September, the team identified one KBO that is considered “definitely reachable,” and two other potentially accessible KBOs that will require more tracking over several months to know whether they too are accessible by the New Horizons spacecraft.

This was a needle-in-the-haystack search for the New Horizons team because the elusive KBOs are extremely small, faint, and difficult to pick out against a background of myriad stars in the constellation Sagittarius, which is in the present direction of Pluto. The three KBOs identified each are a whopping 1.6 billion kilometers (1 billion miles) beyond Pluto. Two of the KBOs are estimated to be as large as 55 kilometers (34 miles) across, and the third is perhaps as small as 25 kilometers (15 miles).

The New Horizons spacecraft, launched in 2006 from Florida, is the first mission in NASA’s New Frontiers Program. Once a NASA mission completes its prime mission, the agency conducts an extensive science and technical review to determine whether extended operations are warranted. The New Horizons team expects to submit such a proposal to NASA in late 2016 for an extended mission to fly by one of the newly identified KBOs. Hurtling across the solar system, the New Horizons spacecraft would reach the distance of 6.5 billion kilometers (4 billion miles) from the Sun at its farthest point roughly three to four years after its July 2015 Pluto encounter. Accomplishing such a KBO flyby would substantially increase the science return from the New Horizons mission as laid out by the 2003 Planetary Science Decadal Survey.

For more information, visit http://pluto.jhuapl.edu.

Following the Dust to Find Exoplanets

This artist’s concept depicts giant planets circling between belts of dust. Scientists think the star system HD 95068 may have a planetary architecture similar to this. While the star system’s two dust belts are known, along with one massive planet, more giant planets may lurk unseen. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Researchers studying what appears to be a beefed-up version of our solar system have discovered that it is encased in a halo of fine dust. The findings are based on infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory, in which NASA is a partner. The dusty star system, called HD 95086, is located 295 light-years from Earth in the constellation Carina. It is thought to include two belts of dust, which lie within the newfound outer dust halo. One of these belts is warm and closer to its star, as is the case with our solar system’s asteroid belt, while the second belt is cooler and farther out, similar to our own Kuiper belt of icy comets.

“By looking at other star systems like these, we can piece together how our own solar system came to be,” said Kate Su, an associate astronomer at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and lead author of the paper.

Within our solar system, the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are sandwiched between the two dust belts. Scientists think something similar is happening in the star system HD 95086, only on larger scales. One planet, about five times the mass of Jupiter, is already known to sit right inside HD 95086’s cooler belt. Other massive planets may be lurking between the two dust belts, waiting to be discovered.

Studies like this from Spitzer and Herschel point the way for groundbased telescopes to snap pictures of such planets in hiding, a technique referred to as direct imaging. The one planet known to exist in HD 95086 was, in fact, discovered and imaged using this technique in 2013. The images aren’t sharp because the planets are so faint and far away, but they reveal new information about the global architecture of a planetary system.

“By knowing where the debris is, plus the properties of the known planet in the system, we can get an idea of what other kinds of planets can be there,” said Sarah Morrison, a co-author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at the University of Arizona. She ran computer models to constrain the possibilities of how many planets are likely to inhabit the system. “We know that we should be looking for multiple planets instead of a single giant planet.”

To learn what HD 95086 looks like, the astronomers turned to a similar star system called HR 8799. It too has an inner and outer belt of debris surrounded by a large halo of fine dust, and four known planets between the belts — among the first exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system, to be directly imaged. Comparing data from the two star systems hints that HD 95086, like its cousin HR 8799, is a possible home to multiple planets that have yet to be seen. Groundbased telescopes might be able to take pictures of the family of planets.

Both HD 95086 and HR 8799 are much younger and dustier than our solar system. When planetary systems are young and still forming, collisions between growing planetary bodies, asteroids, and comets kick up dust. Some of the dust coagulates into planets, some winds up in the belts, and the rest is either blown out into a halo, or funneled onto the star.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/herschel.

Rosetta Successfully Soft Lands on Comet

The descent of its comet lander Philae was captured by the Rosetta spacecraft’s main camera as the lander approached — and then rebounded off — the comet’s surface. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA.

On Wednesday, November 12, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission successfully landed on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Descending at a speed of about 3.2 kilometers per hour (2 miles per hour), the lander, called “Philae,” first touched down and its signal was received at 8:03 a.m. U.S. Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Partially due to anchoring harpoons not firing, and the comet’s low gravity (a hundred-thousand times less than that of Earth), Philae bounced off the surface and flew up to about 1 kilometer (six-tenths of a mile) both above the comet’s surface as well as downrange. At 9:53 a.m. PST, almost two hours after first contact, Philae again touched down. A second, more modest bounce resulted, again sending it airborne. Philae’s third contact with the comet’s nucleus was the charm. At 10:00 a.m. PST, the Rosetta mission’s Philae lander became the first spacecraft to soft-land on a comet.

Rosetta mission controllers believe Philae alighted in a hole, or crevice, about 2 meters (6 feet) in diameter and 2 meters (6 feet) deep and that it is lying on its side. While the lander remains unanchored to the surface, it remains stable, and most of its instruments sent back streams of data two days before its batteries ran down. The solar-powered lander is currently in hibernation mode, awaiting summer in its presumed location, so it could soon access enough energy to open its eyes and start working again.

Teams are still working to confirm the location of the final landing spot. The lander did receive power from some of its solar panels. It appears that some parts of the lander were in shadow during the time of the surface telemetry data transmission.

Images taken by the Rosetta spacecraft’s OSIRIS imaging system showed the portions of the journey its Philae comet lander undertook on November 12 as it approached and then rebounded off the surface of the comet. The mosaic shown here comprises a series of images captured by OSIRIS’s narrow-angle camera over a 30-minute period spanning the first touchdown. The images were taken with Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera when the Rosetta spacecraft was orbiting the comet at about 15.5 kilometers (9.6 miles) from the surface. The images have a resolution of 28 centimeters (11 inches) per pixel, and the enlarged insets are 17 × 17 meters (56 × 56 feet). The time of each of image is in spacecraft event time and marked on the corresponding insets in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT/UTC). From lower left to upper right, the inset images show Philae descending toward, and across, the comet before touchdown. The image taken at 15:43 GMT (7:43 a.m. PST, 9 minutes after Philae first contacted the surface) confirms that the lander was moving east, as first suggested by the data returned by the CONSERT experiment, and at a speed of about 0.5 meters per second (1.1 miles per hour).

Launched in March 2004, Rosetta was reactivated in January 2014 after a record 957 days in hibernation. The mission consists of an orbiter and lander. Its objectives since arriving at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko this summer have been to study the celestial object up close in unprecedented detail, and prepare for landing. The orbiter will continue tracking the comet’s changes as it sweeps past the Sun.

Meanwhile, the first science results are proving intriguing. Data from the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument onboard the Rosetta spacecraft indicate that water on Earth did not come from comets such as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The question about the origin of oceans on Earth is one of the most important questions with respect to the formation of our planet and the origin of life. The most popular theory is that water was brought by impacts of comets and asteroids. Researchers agree that water must have been delivered to Earth by small bodies at a later stage of the planet’s evolution. It is, however, not clear which family of small bodies is responsible. There are three possibilities: asteroid-like small bodies from the region of Jupiter, Oort cloud comets formed inside Neptune’s orbit, and Kuiper belt comets formed outside Neptune’s orbit.

The key to determining where the water originated is in its isotopic “flavor,” i.e., by measuring the level of deuterium — a heavier form of hydrogen. By comparing the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen (D/H) in different objects, scientists can identify where in the solar system that object originated. By comparing the D/H ratio in Earth’s oceans with that in other bodies, scientists can aim to identify the origin of our water.

The ROSINA instrument has found that the composition of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s water vapor is significantly different from that found on Earth. The value for the D/H ratio on the comet is more than three times the terrestrial value — among the highest-ever-measured values in the solar system. That means it is very unlikely that comets like 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko are responsible for the terrestrial water.

For more information, visit http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.esa.int/rosetta.

Opportunities for Students

LPI Summer Intern Program in Planetary Science

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) invites undergraduates with at least 50 semester hours of credit to experience cutting-edge research in the lunar and planetary sciences. Summer interns will work one-on-one with a scientist at the LPI or at the NASA Johnson Space Center on a research project of current interest in lunar and planetary science. Furthermore, they will participate in peer-reviewed research, learn from top-notch planetary scientists, and preview various careers in science.

The 10-week program begins June 1, 2015, and ends on August 7, 2015. Selected students will receive a $5660.00 stipend; in addition, U.S. students will receive a $1000.00 travel stipend, and foreign nationals will receive a $1500.00 foreign travel reimbursement.

The LPI is located near Johnson Space Center, on the south side of Houston, Texas. The LPI provides, on NASA’s behalf, leadership in the scientific community for research in lunar, planetary, and solar system sciences, and linkage with related terrestrial programs.

The deadline for applying for the 2015 program is Friday, January 9, 2015. For more information, including eligibility and selection criteria, areas of research, and an online application form, please visit http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpiintern.

Applications Now Being Accepted for the Exploration Science Summer Intern Program

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) is hosting a special Exploration Science Summer Intern Program to build on the success of the former Lunar Exploration Summer Intern Program that was designed to evaluate possible landing sites on the Moon for robotic and human exploration missions. Over a five year period (2008–2012), teams of students worked with LPI science staff and their collaborators to produce A Global Lunar Landing Site Study to Provide the Scientific Context for Exploration of the Moon. The program for 2015 is designed to have the same impact on future exploration activities, but has a broader scope that includes both the Moon and near-Earth asteroids. It is a unique opportunity to integrate scientific input with exploration activities in a way that mission architects and spacecraft engineers can use.  Activities may involve assessments and traverse plans for a particular destination (e.g., on the lunar farside) or a more general assessment of a class of possible exploration targets (e.g., small near-Earth asteroids).

This program is open to graduate students in geology, planetary science, planetary astronomy, and related programs. It is also open to exceptional undergraduate students with at least 50 semester hours of credit in those fields. The 10-week program runs from May 26, 2015, through July 31, 2015. Selected interns will receive a $5660 stipend to cover the costs associated with being in Houston for the duration of the program. Additionally, U.S. citizens will receive up to $1000 in travel expense reimbursement and foreign nationals will receive up to $1500 in travel expense reimbursement.

The deadline for applying for the 2015 program is Friday, January 23, 2015. For more information, including eligibility and selection criteria, areas of research, and an online application form, please visit http://www.lpi.usra.edu/exploration_intern/.

Graduate Students Eligible for the LPI Career Development Award

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) is proud to announce its eighth LPI Career Development Award, which is open to both U.S. and non-U.S. applicants. This award will be given to graduate students who have submitted a first-author abstract for presentation at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC). A travel stipend of $1000 will be awarded to the top applicants to help cover travel expenses for attending the LPSC in March. Awards will be based on a review of the application materials by a panel of lunar and planetary scientists.

Applications must include a letter outlining why the applicant would like to participate at the LPSC and what he or she will contribute to the conference, a letter of recommendation from his or her research advisor, a copy of the first-author abstract, and a curriculum vitae for the applicant.

The deadline for application is Friday, January 9, 2015. Applications and all accompanying materials must be submitted electronically. All documents uploaded must be in text or PDF format. For more information and a link to the application form, visit http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/programAbstracts/cdaAward/.

NASA’s Planetary Geology and Geophysics Undergraduate Research Program

Through the Planetary Geology and Geophysics Undergraduate Research Program (PGGURP) qualified undergraduates are paired with NASA-funded investigators at research locations around the United States for eight weeks during the summer. PGGURP’s goals are to provide incentive and development of future planetary geoscientists; broaden the base of students who participate in planetary geoscience; introduce students interested in the traditional sciences to planetary science; and give potential planetary geoscientists a chance to explore the exciting field of planetary research. Students will spend the summer at the NASA scientist’s home institution, and the program will pay for housing, travel, and a cost-of-living stipend.

The program consists of an eight-week summer internship, in which qualified students are matched with a NASA-funded planetary scientist. Care is taken to match the skills of the student with the needs of the NASA mentor.

The application deadline is February 2, 2015. For more information, visit http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~tgregg/pggurp.html.

California Institute of Technology Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships

Caltech’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program introduces students to research under the guidance of seasoned research mentors at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Students experience the process of research as a creative intellectual activity. SURF is modeled on the grant-seeking process: students collaborate with potential mentors to define and develop a project; applicants write research proposals for their projects; a faculty committee reviews the proposals and recommends awards; students carry out the work over a 10-week period in the summer, mid-June to late August; and at the conclusion of the program, they submit a technical paper and give an oral presentation at SURF Seminar Day, a symposium modeled on a professional technical meeting.

The deadline for all application materials is February 22, 2015. For more information, visit http://sfp.caltech.edu/programs/surf.

Internships, Scholarships, and Fellowships with NASA

The NASA One Stop Shopping Initiative (OSSI) strives to provide high-school students and undergraduate and graduate students at all institutions of higher education access to a portfolio of internship, fellowship, and scholarship opportunities offered by NASA mission directorates and centers.

Visit the Office of Education Infrastructure Division LaunchPad to find information on internship, fellowship, and scholarship opportunities. The site features the OSSI online application for recruiting NASA Interns, Fellows, and Scholars (NIFS). This innovative system allows students to search and apply for all types of higher-education NASA internship, fellowship, and scholarship opportunities in one location. A single application places the student in the applicant pool for consideration by all NASA mentors.

Applications for summer 2015 opportunities are due March 1, 2015. To find available opportunities and fill out an OSSI online application, visit intern.nasa.gov. Inquiries about the OSSI should be submitted via http://intern.nasa.gov/oic.

Postdoctoral and Graduate Fellowships at the Smithsonian

The Department of Mineral Sciences at the Smithsonian Institution–National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) invites applications for both postdoctoral and graduate fellowships. Active areas of research include volcanology, mineral spectroscopy, geomicrobiology, environmental mineralogy, geochemistry, experimental petrology, mineral physics, meteorite studies, solar system formation, and planetary formation and evolution. The department also houses the National Meteorite Collection, the National Rock and Ore Collection, the National Gem and Mineral Collection, and the Global Volcanism Program. Application deadlines vary according to the particular program. For more information, visit http://mineralsciences.si.edu/research/fellowship.htm.

The National Air and Space Museum offers the Verville Fellowship, which is a competitive nine- to twelve-month in-residence fellowship intended for the analysis of major trends, developments, and accomplishments in the history of aviation or space studies. The fellowship is open to interested candidates with demonstrated skills in research and writing. Publishing experience should demonstrate either a mid-level academic record of accomplishment or proven ability to reliably engage broader audiences. An advanced degree in history or a related field is preferred but not a requirement. An annual stipend of $55,000 will be awarded for a 12-month fellowship, with limited additional funds for travel and miscellaneous expenses. Applications are due by January 15, 2015, and the fellowship normally begins between August 15 and October 1. For more information, visit http://airandspace.si.edu/research/fellowships/verville.cfm.

SAO Summer Intern Program

The SAO (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory) Summer Intern Program is a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program where students work on astrophysics research with an SAO/Harvard scientist. In 2015 the program will run for 10 weeks, currently scheduled from June 7 through August 15 (these dates may change depending on the availability of Harvard housing). Students are expected to be in residence at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) for the full duration of the program.

The program is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. Undergraduate students interested in a career in astronomy, astrophysics, physics, or related physical sciences are encouraged to apply for the 2015 program. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents (“green card” holders), and must be enrolled in a degree program leading to a bachelors degree. Seniors who will graduate in June 2015 (or before) are not eligible.

The application deadline is February 2, 2015. For more details, visit http://hea-www.harvard.edu/REU/REU.html.

NASA Minority Innovation Challenges Institute

The mission of the Minority Innovation Challenges Institute (MICI) is to create a virtual training ground where minority undergraduate students learn how to compete in NASA technical challenges for both prestige and significant cash prizes. This NASA funded program, which is managed by Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University (FAMU), provides a year-round virtual conference platform where students from across the country can participate in free interactive educational sessions of their choosing. Many of the sessions will focus on competitions found within NASA’s Centennial Challenges program, which provides cash prizes ranging from $50,000 to $2 million to individuals/teams that can achieve specific technical accomplishments.

In addition to Centennial Challenges, students will also learn how to compete in other NASA-sponsored competitions created specifically for universities. The goal of MICI is to use NASA technical competitions as a way to inspire minority undergraduate students to pursue (1) an advanced degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), and (2) a career in STEM-related disciplines that will ultimately contribute to NASA’s future technological needs.

Registration to MICI is always open throughout the year. There are no cut-off dates because new content is being featured each month. For more information, visit http://nasamici.com.

Spotlight on Education

“Spotlight on Education” highlights events and programs that provide opportunities for planetary scientists to become involved in education and public outreach and to engage science educators and the community. If you know of space science educational programs or events that should be included, please contact the Lunar and Planetary Institute’s Education Department at shupla@lpi.usra.edu.

Lunar and Planetary Science Conference: Education Opportunities

The 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference will be held at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center, The Woodlands, Texas, March 16–20, 2015. There will be a variety of events and opportunities that will be of interest to the E/PO community and scientists who are involved in — or are interested in — education and outreach. Details are available at http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/events/education.

Submit an E/PO Abstract —

We invite all those involved with education and public outreach to submit an abstract for the E/PO poster sessions. The abstract deadline is January 6, 2015; to submit, follow the abstract submission instructions, and choose the topic “Education and Public Outreach” on the LPSC abstract submission form.

Higher Education Faculty Workshop —

The 2015 annual Undergraduate Teaching Workshop will be held in conjunction with LPSC at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center on Sunday, March 15, from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Higher-education faculty will share successful teaching resources and approaches. Registration is free but required. For more details, please contact Dr. Sanlyn Buxner at buxner@psi.edu.

Scientist and Science Educator Professional Development Workshop:
Communicating with Your Audience —

Experts in communicating with the public and press will present techniques for successfully engaging a variety of audiences in different formats. Following interactive presentations, participants will work with the presenters to apply their knowledge to their own communications products and presentations.

The workshop will be held on Sunday, March 15, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in conjunction with LPSC at The Woodlands Waterway Marriott Hotel and Convention Center. Registration is free but required. For additional information, please contact Christine Shupla at shupla@lpi.usra.edu.

E/PO Help Desk for Scientists Interested in Increasing Their Impact —

Scientists are invited to work one-on-one with Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) professionals to (1) identify paths to get involved in E/PO that match available time and resources; (2) learn about ways to achieve maximum impact in E/PO undertakings; and/or (3) understand the current E/PO landscape. Recommended resources, primers for working in different learning environments, and other materials will be available. More details will be available closer to the time of the meeting.

NASA SMD Education and Public Outreach CAN

NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) has released a draft Cooperative Agreement Notice (CAN) for team-based proposals for SMD science education. The draft is downloadable from the NSPIRES web page at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId={556FB435-535C-1D75-3E70-05C2B341A1FD}&path=open. It is anticipated that the final CAN will be issued in January 2015.

The desired outcome of this CAN is to increase the overall coherence of the SMD science education program, leading to more effective, sustainable, and efficient utilization of SMD science discoveries and learning experiences and meeting overall SMD science education objectives: enabling STEM education, improving U.S. science literacy, advancing national education goals, and leveraging science education through partnerships. Fundamental to achieving this outcome is enabling NASA scientists and engineers to engage more effectively with learners of all ages. Awards are anticipated by September 30, 2015.

Upcoming Public Event Opportunities

Upcoming opportunities exist for educator and public engagement around the broader topics of NASA planetary exploration and solar system formation. Resources for evening observing session events include the Night Sky Network’s Discover the Universe Guides at https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/news-display.cfm?News_ID=611. Consider getting in touch with local astronomical societies, planetariums and museums, local scientists, and NASA’s Solar System Ambassadors (http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ambassador/directory.htm) — ask them to join your events and share their experiences or resources with the children.

Dawn Arrives at Ceres —

The Dawn mission left the asteroid Vesta in 2012 and is on its way to dwarf planet Ceres, the largest asteroid. It is expected to arrive in March 2015. A variety of educational materials for hosting an “i C Ceres” event will be available at http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/.

New Horizons Reaches Pluto —

The New Horizons mission will fly past this mysterious icy dwarf planet on July 14, 2015. Information and resources for your Pluto celebrations are available at http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/education/index.php.

New LPI Education Website: Look Up!

Celestial events (eclipses, meteor showers, etc.) are seen frequently from Earth while, in this age of planetary exploration, NASA spacecraft are often reaching important mission milestones. Use these celestial events and NASA mission milestones as unique opportunities to engage your audiences in solar system science and exploration! The Lunar and Planetary Institute has created a new website called “Look Up!” containing resources, ideas, and tips for educators looking to create programs centered on solar system events. For programming ideas and events happening in 2015 and beyond, visit http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/look_up.

Nominate a Scientist or Educator for an E/PO Award

AGU’s Spilhaus Award —

This is awarded not more than once annually to an individual member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) for devoting portions of their career to conveying to the general public the excitement, significance, and beauty of the Earth and space sciences. Nominations open January 15, 2015, and close March 15, 2015. For more information, visit http://honors.agu.org/medals-awards/athelstan-spilhaus-award/.

AGU’s Excellence in Geophysical Education Award —

This AGU award is given not more than once annually to an individual, group, or team. The award is “to acknowledge a sustained commitment to excellence in geophysical education by a team, individual, or group. To educators who have had a major impact on geophysical education at any level (kindergarten through postgraduate), who have been outstanding teachers and trainers for a number of years, or who have made a long-lasting, positive impact on geophysical education through professional service.” Nominations open January 15, 2015, and close March 15, 2015. For more information, visit http://honors.agu.org/medals-awards/excellence-in-geophysical-education-award/.

AGI’s Edward C. Roy Jr. Award for Excellence in K–8 Earth Science Teaching —

Each year, the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) awards one full-time U.S. teacher from kindergarten through eighth grade for leadership and innovation in Earth science education. The winner will receive a $2500 prize and a travel grant of $1000 to attend the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Annual Conference in March 2015 to accept the award. To be eligible for the 2015 competition, applications must be postmarked by January 20, 2015. For more information, visit http://www.agiweb.org/education/awards/ed-roy/.

ASP’s Richard H. Emmons Award —

The Richard A. Emmons Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) is awarded annually to an individual demonstrating outstanding achievement in the teaching of college-level introductory astronomy for non-science majors. The nomination deadline is January 1, 2015. For more information, visit http://www.astrosociety.org/about-us/the-richard-h-emmons-award-for-excellence-in-college-astronomy-teaching/.

ASP’s Klumpke-Roberts Award —

ASP bestows the annual Klumpke-Roberts Award on those who have made outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. The nomination deadline is January 1, 2015. For more information, visit http://www.astrosociety.org/about-us/klumpke-roberts-award-of-the-astronomical-society-of-the-pacific/.

ASP’s Thomas J. Brennan Award —

The Thomas J. Brennan Award recognizes excellence in the teaching of astronomy at the high-school level in North America. The recipients have demonstrated exceptional commitment to classroom or planetarium education, as well as the training of other teachers. The nomination deadline is January 1, 2015. For more information, visit http://www.astrosociety.org/about-us/thomas-brennan-award-for-outstanding-contributions-to-the-teaching-of-astronomy-in-grades-9-12.

In Memoriam

Gerry Neugebauer, 1932–2014

Gerry Neugebauer, an astrophysicist who pioneered ways to peer into previously invisible sectors of outer space, helping to discover hundreds of thousands of planets, stars, and galaxies, died on September 26 in Arizona. Neugebauer was a former chairman of the division of physics, mathematics, and astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and director of the Palomar Observatory there.

Born as Gerhart Otto Neugebauer in Gottingen, Germany, on September 3, 1932, Neugebauer legally changed his first name to Gerry as a teenager. He graduated from Cornell with a degree in physics and earned a Ph.D. in physics from Caltech. From 1960 to 1963, Neugebauer served in the Army, which assigned him to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where he designed the infrared equipment for the Mariner 2 mission to Venus in 1962, and was then hired at Caltech’s physics faculty.

Early on he worked with Robert B. Leighton of Caltech, who in the early 1960s developed a telescope that Neugebauer used to sweep the sky from the Mount Wilson Observatory. Neugebauer’s persistence was rewarded when he found an object the size of the solar system. It turned out to be a newborn star, a discovery that shed light on how stars are formed. He and his colleagues went on to locate the exact center of the Milky Way.

Neugebauer was considered a father of the field of infrared radiation, along with Frank J. Low of the University of Arizona. Neugebauer’s biggest achievement was in detecting and interpreting infrared radiation emanating from outer space. A major advance came in 1983, when he was the scientific director of the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), sponsored by NASA, Britain, and the Netherlands, when he helped develop instruments sensitive enough to detect a 20-watt light bulb on Pluto or a speck of dust from a mile away. His team pinpointed more than a half-million sources of infrared radiation in the sky, many of them galaxies. It found rings of debris and dust around stars that were an early clue that planets exist beyond Earth’s solar system.

Neugebauer was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received the Space Science Award of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in Britain, of which he was a member.

— Text courtesy of the AAS/DPS, condensed and extracted from the New York Times

Charles A. Barth, 1930–2014

Charles A. Barth, Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado, died after a long illness in his home on October 14 at the age of 84. Barth grew up in Philadelphia, where he attended Central High School. He received his B.S. in chemistry at Lehigh University. After serving in the Air Force, he earned his Ph.D. from UCLA. From 1958 to 1959 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bonn, Germany, followed by six years working at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech)/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From 1965 to 1992, he served as the Director of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and until 2002 was a professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. He became Professor Emeritus in 2002.

Between 1962 and 2002, Barth was the investigator for numerous experiments studying the Earth and other planets, including Mariners 5, 6, 7, and 9; OGO-2, 4, 5, and 6; Atmosphere Explorer-C and D; the Solar Mesosphere Explorer; the Student Nitric Oxide Experiment; and instruments on Apollo 17, Pioneer Venus, Galileo, and Cassini. He guided the growth of LASP into its current position as a preeminent university laboratory for space and planetary exploration. He especially valued giving undergraduate students their first taste of space and planetary science by allowing them to design, build, and operate spacecraft, an experience students at the University of Colorado can still receive. Barth mentored and inspired many students, postdoctoral fellows, and scientists, producing a lasting legacy of friends, colleagues, and outstanding scientists. In honor of his memory, the Charles A. Barth Scholarship in Space Research has been established at the University of Colorado to support and inspire future space scientists.

— Text courtesy of The Boulder Daily Camera

Lewis Peach, 1943–2014

Lewis Peach died on November 22 at his home in Arnold, Maryland. He began his career at NASA’s Ames Research Center, and retired from Senior Executive Service at NASA, where he served as Project Manager in the Office of Space Flight and the NASA Academy for Program/Project and Engineering Leadership. Peach also served as vice-president for exploration/development at the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), and was a board member of Hawaii’s Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) space program. He was also a Vietnam veteran.

Correction:

In Issue No. 138, Noel Hinner’s birth year was listed as 1925. The correct year is 1935.

Milestones

NASA’s New Orion Spacecraft Completes First Spaceflight Test

Following a perfect launch and more than four hours in Earth’s orbit, NASA’s Orion spacecraft is seen from an unpiloted aircraft descending under three massive red-and-white main parachutes, and shortly after its bullseye splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA.

NASA marked a major milestone on its journey to Mars as the Orion spacecraft completed its first voyage to space on December 5, traveling farther than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has been in more
than 40 years.

“Today’s flight test of Orion is a huge step for NASA and a really critical part of our work to pioneer deep space on our Journey to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “The teams did a tremendous job putting Orion through its paces in the real environment it will endure as we push the boundary of human exploration in the coming years.”

Orion blazed into the morning sky at 7:05 a.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time (EST), lifting off from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. The Orion crew module splashed down approximately 4.5 hours later in the Pacific Ocean, 966 kilometers (600 miles) southwest of San Diego.

During the uncrewed test, Orion traveled twice through the Van Allen belt where it experienced periods of high radiation, and reached an altitude of 5794 kilometers (3600 miles) above Earth. Orion also hit speeds of 32,000 kilometers per hour (20,000 miles per hour) and weathered temperatures approaching 2204°C (4000°F) as it entered Earth’s atmosphere.

Orion will open the space between Earth and Mars for exploration by astronauts. This proving ground will be invaluable for testing capabilities future human Mars missions will need. The spacecraft was tested in space to allow engineers to collect critical data to evaluate its performance and improve its design. The flight tested Orion’s heat shield, avionics, parachutes, computers, and key spacecraft separation events, exercising many of the systems critical to the safety of astronauts who will travel in Orion.

On future missions, Orion will launch on NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket currently being developed at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. A 70-metric-ton (77-ton) SLS will send Orion to a distant retrograde orbit around the Moon on Exploration Mission-1 in the first test of the fully integrated Orion and SLS system.

“We really pushed Orion as much as we could to give us real data that we can use to improve Orion’s design going forward,” said Mark Geyer, Orion Program manager. “In the coming weeks and months we’ll be taking a look at that invaluable information and applying lessons learned to the next Orion spacecraft already in production for the first mission atop the Space Launch System rocket.”

A team of NASA, U.S. Navy, and Lockheed Martin personnel onboard the USS Anchorage recovered Orion and returned it to U.S. Naval Base San Diego. Orion was then delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for processing. The crew module will be refurbished for use in Ascent Abort-2 in 2018, a test of Orion’s launch abort system.

Lockheed Martin, NASA’s prime contractor for Orion, began manufacturing the Orion crew module in 2011 and delivered it in July 2012 to the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Facility at Kennedy where final assembly, integration, and testing were completed. More than 1000 companies across the country manufactured or contributed elements to Orion.

For more information about Orion, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion.

LPI Announces Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award Recipient

Patrick Boehnke. Credit: UCLA.

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) is pleased to announce that the 2014 recipient of the Eugene M. Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award is Patrick Boehnke of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Boenke is pursuing a Ph.D. study of impact-related shock processes and their effect on the argon-argon radiometric system. He is working with Mark Harrison at UCLA. With funds provided with the GSA Planetary Geology Division’s Eugene M. Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award, Boehnke will be conducting shock experiments at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Ar-Ar analyses of experimental products at New Mexico Tech.

The Eugene M. Shoemaker Impact Cratering Award is designed to support undergraduate and graduate students, of any nationality, working in any country, in the disciplines of geology, geophysics, geochemistry, astronomy, or biology. Grants support the study of impact cratering processes on Earth and other bodies in the solar system, including asteroids and comets that produce impacts and the geological, chemical, or biological results of impact cratering.

This award is generously provided by the Planetary Geology Division of the Geological Society of America and administered by the LPI. It commemorates the work of Eugene (“Gene”) Shoemaker, who greatly influenced planetary sciences during the Apollo era and for several decades thereafter, including the discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with his wife Carolyn and colleague David Levy.

Proposals for next year’s award will be due in September 2015. Applications will be accepted beginning in late summer of 2015. Application details can be found at https://www.lpi.usra.edu/Awards/shoemaker/.

Head Honored for International Space Science Collaboration

James W. Head, wearing the M. V. Keldysh Medal of the Russian Cosmonautics Federation, celebrated Brown’s 250th anniversary in Moscow recently with friends Olga Devina, Academician Mikhail Marov, and others at the Fifth Moscow International Solar System Symposium. Credit: Brown Univ.

For more than 40 years, through Cold War tension and political unrest, James W. Head, the Louis and Elizabeth Scherck Distinguished Professor of the Geological Sciences at Brown University, has spearheaded a scientific collaboration between planetary scientists at Brown and Russia’s V. I. Vernadsky Institute. At a celebration of Brown’s 250th anniversary in Moscow in October, Head was honored for his contributions to space science and to international cooperation with the M. V. Keldysh Medal from the Russian Cosmonautics Federation.

“It was truly a tremendous honor,” Head said of the award, which is named for a scientist who helped lead the burgeoning Soviet space program in the 1950s and 1960s. “The event was a great opportunity to celebrate with colleagues and students and share some of the history of this extremely fruitful collaboration that remains strong today.”

The Brown 250th celebration took place at the Fifth Moscow International Solar System Symposium, where Head and his students presented several research papers and posters. U.S. and Russian scientists — and several Brown students, parents, and alumni — were greeted at the celebration by a video message from Brown President Christina Paxson. Head presented a brief history of Brown and was joined by his Russian colleagues to discuss the historic ties between Brown and the Vernadsky Institute.

The collaboration between Brown and the Vernadsky Institute began in 1973. Head was part of a delegation of U.S. scientists who traveled to Moscow for the first joint U.S.-Soviet planetary science meeting. It was there that Head met Valery Barsukov, who was head of the Vernadsky Institute and a key player in solar system exploration for the Soviet space agency. The two became fast friends. Barsukov showed Head some images of the surface of Venus taken by a Soviet Venera lander probe. Data on Venus from U.S. spacecraft were sparse at the time, and Head was clearly enthralled by what he was seeing.

“Barsukov asked me,” Head said, “‘Why don’t you come back to Moscow to study these with us?’” Head jumped at the chance, returning the following year with one of his graduate students. Shortly after, the collaboration was formalized as the Brown-Vernadsky agreement. Under the agreement, the two sides pledged to share data from each country’s planetary missions, exchange scientists and students, and hold twice-yearly meetings, one in the U.S. and one in Moscow.

The first data exchange under the agreement gave U.S. scientists access to data tapes generated by the Venera probes to the surface of Venus. Getting access to those data was no easy task. All the tapes had to be “sanitized” of technical information that might reveal state secrets — the location of Soviet radar ground stations, for example. But in the end, the scientific data were shared. This was later followed by 21 digital data tapes for the Venera 15/16 missions, giving U.S. scientists access to what was at the time the richest dataset available on our nearest planetary neighbor. The data exchange was a boon to U.S. scientists in the 1980s, as the Soviets flew 14 planetary missions during that decade while the U.S. flew none.

Head also became a guest investigator on the Soviet Venera 15/16 missions, the Vega mission to Venus and Halley’s Comet, and Soviet missions to the martian moon Phobos. He continues to work with Russian scientists on a future sample-return mission to Phobos and landing site selection for Russian lunar missions.

By 1990, the United States was able to reciprocate. Several prominent Soviet scientists were invited to be guest investigators on NASA’s Magellan mission to Venus — a mission that produced the first global radar map of the venusian surface. The scientific meetings held under the agreement, dubbed microsymposia, were another important component in keeping warm relations between the two sides, according to Head. “It kept up the personal interactions even when the political situation deteriorated in the 1980s,” he said. “That was critical.”

The microsymposia are still held today. The most recent, held last March, brought Russian scientists together with U.S. scientists and astronauts to discuss targets for future human exploration of the solar system. Over the years, the Brown-Vernadsky collaboration has produced hundreds of publications and conference presentations and provided new insight into the formation of the inner solar system. But perhaps most important to Head is the impact the partnership has had on his students — an impact that many continue to carry with them in prominent careers.

In presenting Head with the Keldysh Medal, Lev Zelenyi, vice president of the Russian Academy of Sciences and director of the Space Research Institute, said he has long been impressed by the breadth of knowledge of Head’s undergraduate and graduate students: “I became convinced that that the requirement to know everything [was] included in the training program at Brown.”

Mars Exploration Program Director Named

NASA’s Mars Exploration Program Director, Jim Watzin. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA has taken another step in its journey to Mars. Jim Watzin has been named the new director for the agency’s Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Watzin, whose duties began December 1, succeeds Jim Green, NASA’s planetary sciences chief, who had been the acting Mars director since December 2012. “Jim brings the right leadership at the right time to the Mars program,” said Green. “His experience and creativity will be instrumental in making the Mars 2020 rover a reality, guiding the success of the missions leading up to it, and bridging the gap from science to the future human exploration of the Red Planet. We’re excited to have him join us.”

Watzin most recently served as the technical director and deputy program executive for Command, Control, Communication, Computer, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance at the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) in Huntsville, Alabama. Among his other duties, he oversaw MDA’s space development and test activities. Watzin graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. In 1980, he earned a master’s degree in aerospace dynamics and control from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. He joined NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland, in 1980, where he began a career focused largely on challenging, paradigm-shifting space exploration programs.

With a hands-on background in systems engineering, Watzin has led multiple flight projects and program offices, serving as the NASA program manager for several programs that included Living with a Star, Solar Terrestrial Probes, and robotic lunar exploration. He was the founder of the Planetary Projects Division at Goddard, where he oversaw the development of the Mars Science Laboratory’s Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite and mentored the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) and Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission formulation teams. MAVEN reached Mars two months ago and has begun studying its upper atmosphere. OSIRIS-REx will launch in 2016 to visit an asteroid and bring a sample of it back to Earth.

A fleet of robotic spacecraft and rovers are on and around the Red Planet, paving the way for future human missions on a journey to Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover’s data are helping plan how to protect the astronauts who will explore Mars. The Mars 2020 rover will seek signs of past life and will demonstrate new technologies that could help astronauts survive on Mars. The Mars 2020 mission will be based on the design of the highly successful Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, which landed more than two years ago, and currently is operating on Mars. The new rover will carry more sophisticated, upgraded hardware and new instruments to conduct geological assessments of the rover’s landing site, determine the potential habitability of the environment, and directly search for signs of ancient martian life.

Mars is a rich destination for scientific discovery and robotic and human exploration as we expand our presence into the solar system. Its formation and evolution are comparable to Earth’s, so studying Mars helps us learn more about our own planet’s history and future. Mars had conditions suitable for life in its past. Future exploration could uncover evidence of life, answering one of the fundamental mysteries of the cosmos: Does life exist beyond Earth?

For more information about NASA’s Mars programs, visit htp://www.mars.nasa.gov.

AAS Division For Planetary Sciences Announces 2014 Prize Winners

The Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) is pleased to announce its 2014 prize winners.

Gerard P. Kuiper Prize for outstanding contributions to the field of planetary science —

Dr. Peter Gierasch made outstanding contributions to our understanding of planetary atmospheres during the 49 years of his professional career. His impact on the study of planetary atmospheres is exceptional, with some of his early papers still being frequently cited today, decades after their publication. His papers on the martian thermal and dynamical structure (1968), zonal-mean properties of Jupiter (1986), and Venus’ atmospheric rotation (1975) were groundbreaking and remain classics in the field. Long before the greenhouse effect and global warming became household terms, Gierasch worked these puzzles for Mars. Gierasch is a professor of astronomy at Cornell University and the co-founder of Cornell’s Center for Radiophysics and Space Research, which he led for over a decade. He received his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1962 and 1968, respectively. He has served on numerous planetary missions, including Viking, Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini.

Harold C. Urey Prize for outstanding achievement in planetary research by a young scientist —

Dr. Matija Cuk’s broad-ranging research is significantly contributing to unraveling the origin of the solar system’s current structure. He has applied his skills across a remarkably broad range of topics: the origin and evolution of the Moon, binary asteroids, and KBOs, as well as tidal evolution, orbital stability, rotational history, and cratering of these bodies. Cuk devised and convincingly demonstrated the binary Yarkovsky-O’Keefe-Radzievskii-Paddack (BYORP) mechanism, in which thermal radiation forces affect the orbital and rotational histories of binary asteroids. Cuk’s findings represent some of the most significant contributions to the field. Cuk, currently a researcher at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, obtained his bachelor’s degree from University of Belgrade, Serbia. He received his master’s degree and Ph.D. from Cornell University and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.

Harold Masursky Award for outstanding service to planetary science and exploration —

Dr. Athena Coustenis has an impressive scientific research career and has made major contributions to planetary science in the spirit of the Harold Masursky award. More than any other member of the DPS community, Coustenis contributed to promoting and facilitating international collaboration in planetary science. Coustenis has played a major role in organizing the dissemination of scientific results at international conferences, including those of the European Geophysical Union, the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences, the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society, the DPS/AAS, the European Planetary Science Congress, as well as the AGU Goldschmidt conferences and the International Planetary Probe workshops. She has rendered outstanding service to the international planetary science community through a combination of managerial, leadership, programmatic, and public service activities. Coustenis is currently Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France, and an astrophysicist with the Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA) of Paris Observatory, France.

Carl Sagan Medal for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist to the general public —

Br. Guy Consolmagno has a decades-long track record of communicating planetary science to the public while maintaining an active science career. In addition, he occupies a unique position within our profession as a credible spokesperson for scientific honesty within the context of religious belief. Br. Guy uses multiple media to reach his audience. He has authored or edited six books, with Turn Left at Orion in its fourth edition of publication. This book alone has had an enormous impact on the amateur astronomy community, engendering public support for astronomy. In addition to writing books, he is a dynamic popular speaker, giving 40 to 50 public lectures every year across both Europe and the U.S., reaching thousands of people. He regularly gives interviews on BBC radio shows on planetary science topics and hosted his own BBC radio show discussing the origins of the universe (“A Brief History of the End of Everything”). These appearances address both pure science subjects and science-with-religion subjects. As a Jesuit Brother, Consolmagno has become the voice of the juxtaposition of planetary science and astronomy with Christian belief, a rational spokesperson who can convey exceptionally well how religion and science can co-exist for believers.

Jonathan Eberhart Planetary Sciences Journalism Award to recognize and stimulate distinguished popular writing on planetary sciences —

James Oberg is a science journalist, space consultant, and retired “rocket scientist” who spent the first 22 years of his career as an engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he specialized in space shuttle operations and orbital rendezvous. Oberg has authored some two dozen books about all aspects of space flight for both the astronomy-interested layman and NASA’s training program and has written more than 1000 magazine and newspaper articles. His work has appeared in Astronomy, The Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, OMNI, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and other publications. In addition, Oberg has served as the NBC News space consultant for a decade. He is considered an expert on the Russian space program and U.S. space policy. In his winning entry, “Torrid Mercury’s Icy Poles,” in Astronomy magazine’s December 2013 issue, James expertly explores the history of the search for the innermost planet’s water ice and what the MESSENGER spacecraft, launched in 2004, is revealing. The saga of water ice hiding in the shadows on Mercury ranks among the most fascinating chapters in the story of the solar system’s birth and evolution.

The 2014 DPS prizes were presented at the 46th annual DPS meeting, which was held in Tucson, Arizona, in November.

Starstruck: The Fine Art of Astrophotography On Display at the James A. Michener Art Museum

The James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, proudly announces a spectacle of galactic proportions entitled “Starstruck: The Fine Art of Astrophotography.” The exhibition is curated by Anthony Shostak, the Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine, and will be on view through February 8, 2015.

Among the first major exhibitions examining astrophotography as an art genre, Starstruck presents a dazzling array of images that gives insight into this rapidly evolving field. The exhibition features stunning images by 34 artists from around the world. The installation features a variety of extraordinary themes, from landscapes and oceans to galaxies, moons, and cavernous sky objects.

The exhibition, on loan from the Bates College Museum of Art, was selected by a distinguished team of jurors comprised of Weston Naef, curator emeritus of photography at the J. Paul Getty Museum; Dennis di Cicco, pioneer of CCD astrophotography and senior editor, Sky & Telescope magazine; and Jerry T. Bonnell, co-editor/author of NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day. A 242-page color catalog documents the exhibition, illustrating each photograph and featuring essays by the jurors and by Eric Wollman, professor of physics at Bates College.

Now a familiar topic in publications like Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines, astrophotography is a worldwide phenomenon, illustrating the convergence of art and science as told through the lens of a camera. According to Lisa Tremper Hanover, Director and CEO of Museum, “We are delighted to host this exhibition and provide the Museum’s guests with a view of the vastness of our universe through the camera’s lens. The photographs illustrate an array of colors, beauty and mystique of the stars and planets that would not otherwise be visible to the naked eye.”

The exhibit is complemented by a variety of educational programs. For a full calendar of exhibit-related events, visit the Museum’s website at http://MichenerArtMuseum.org.

New and Noteworthy

BOOKS

Protostars and Planets VI.

Edited by Henrik Beuther, Ralf S. Klessen, Cornelis P. Dullemond, and Thomas Henning. University of Arizona Press, 2014, 952 pp., Hardcover, $65.00. www.uapress.arizona.edu

The revolutionary discovery of thousands of confirmed and candidate planets beyond the solar system brings forth the most fundamental question: How do planets and their host stars form and evolve? Protostars and Planets VI brings together more than 250 contributing authors at the forefront of their field, conveying the latest results in this research area and establishing a new foundation for advancing our understanding of stellar and planetary formation. Continuing the tradition of the Protostars and Planets series, this latest volume uniquely integrates the cross-disciplinary aspects of this broad field. Covering an extremely wide range of scales, from the formation of large clouds in our Milky Way galaxy down to small chondrules in our solar system, Protostars and Planets VI takes an encompassing view with the goal of not only highlighting what we know but, most importantly, emphasizing the frontiers of what we do not know. As a vehicle for propelling forward new discoveries on stars, planets, and their origins, this latest volume in the Space Science Series is an indispensable resource for both current scientists and new students in astronomy, astrophysics, planetary science, and the study of meteorites.

The Art of Space: The History of Space Art, From the Earliest Visions to the Graphics of the Modern Era.

By Ron Miller. Zenith Press, 2014, 224 pp., Hardcover, $35.00. www.QBookshop.com

The Art of Space is the most comprehensive celebration of space art ever to be published, profiling the development of space-based art in a variety of media. In The Art of Space, award-winning artist and best-selling author Miller presents over 350 high quality and often photorealistic images that chart how artists throughout history, working with the knowledge and research available during their time, have endeavored to construct realistic images of visions throughout the universe. Beginning with depictions of spaceships, unmanned probes, and space stations, the author moves through collections that also illustrate the planets, moons, galaxies, and stars; cities, colonies, and space habitats; and possible alien life. The artwork presented here has been created in a variety of media, from the woodcuts and oil paintings of the Victorian and Edwardian eras to the digitally enhanced work of contemporary artists. Each chapter also includes two special features: one profile of an artist or group of artists of particular influence, and one sidebar discussion of general cultural topics, such as the use of space art for propaganda purposes during the Cold War or the impact of the digital revolution on the resources available to artists. A fascinating study on the intersection of science and the artistic imagination, The Art of Space shows how astronomy and space travel has been reflected in popular art and public perception over the past two centuries. With forewords from Carolyn Porco and Dan Durda, this book is the ultimate resource for space art fans.

Planetary Exploration and Science: Recent Results and Advances.

Edited by Shuanggen Jin, Nader Haghighipour, and Wing-Huen Ip. Springer, 2015, 341 pp., Hardcover, $179.00. www.springer.com

This contributed monograph is the first work to present the latest results and findings on the new topic and hot field of planetary exploration and sciences, e.g., lunar surface iron content and Mare Orientale basalts, Earth’s gravity field, martian radar exploration, crater recognition, ionosphere and astrobiology, comet ionospheres, exoplanetary atmospheres, and planet formation in binaries. By providing detailed theory and examples, this book helps readers to quickly familiarize themselves with the field. In addition, it offers a special section on next-generation planetary exploration, which opens a new landscape for future exploration plans and missions.

Live TV From Orbit.

By Dwight Steven-Boniecki. Griffin Media, 2014, Paperback, 216 pp., $29.95. www.cgpublishing.com

In this volume, the often-overlooked missions of Skylab, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), and the shuttle categorically receive the recognition they have long deserved. Live TV from Orbit presents the planning and development of the television systems used on those flights and summarizes the television coverage during the respective missions. Engineers and planners involved with NASA, Westinghouse, and RCA help complement the detailed analysis of just how much effort went into bringing some of the most important historical video from Earth orbit to the everyday person’s living room. Using internal memos and status reports as its foundation, this book digs deep to uncover the story that unfolded behind the cameras. Unlike during the days of Apollo, NASA had to fight against the growing apathy of the general public, and despite this hurdle, managed to deliver many iconic moments in outer space with a glorious clarity that had never been seen before. Having set the benchmark high for the lunar missions, NASA planners had to push it even higher to win the hearts and minds of potential viewers.

Experiments in Reduced Gravity: Sediment Settling on Mars.

By Nikolaus Kuhn. Elsevier, 2014, 50 pp., Paperback, $29.95. store.elsevier.com

Experiments in Reduced Gravity: Sediment Settling on Mars is the first published book that reflects experiments conducted on martian geomorphology in reduced gravity. This brief yet important book on sediment experiments assesses the theoretical and empirical foundation of the models used to analyze the increasing information we have on the past geography on Mars. The book also evaluates the need to develop new methods for analyzing information by providing a conceptual outline and a case study on how experiments can be used to test current theoretical considerations. The conceptual approach to identifying the need for and role of experiments will be of interest to not only planetary scientists and geoscientists involved with Mars, but also others who use experiments for which the book’s concepts can be applied.

Infinite Worlds: The People and Places of Space Exploration.

By Michael Soluri. Simon & Schuster, 2014, 352 pp., Hardcover, $40.00. www.simonandschuster.com

Infinite Worlds is an exclusive and unscripted photographic documentary inside the world of three NASA flight centers in Maryland, Texas, and Florida. With the conclusion of the shuttle program, this is the first and last book of its kind. Designed with more than 400 gorgeous full-color and black-and-white photographs, the volume is woven with essays written by 18 individuals from the human and robotic spaceflight labor force that participated in the STS 125/SM4 mission. This book will appeal not only to the space history buff and photography connoisseur, but also to the armchair astronomer, and families wanting an insightful and beautiful keepsake of the space shuttle and Hubble Space Telescope era.

DVD

To Catch a Comet: The Landmark Mission of the Rosetta Spacecraft.

Produced by NOVA/PBS, 2014, one disk. $24.99. www.shoppbs.org

Deep space. Billions of miles from Earth, Rosetta, a spacecraft the size of a car, travels toward an icy rock 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide that hurtles through space at tens of thousands of kilometers per hour. Rosetta has been in space for 10 years, but in November, she accomplished something that no other spacecraft had ever even attempted: landed on the volatile surface of a comet as it flew around the Sun. Rosetta is the European Space Agency’s most audacious mission, and it took a team of brilliant engineers 30 years to accomplish this feat. The mission has been beset with daunting technological challenges, faulty launch vehicles, and the unpredictable and dangerous nature of the comet itself, all of which conspired to stop the mission in its tracks. Rosetta is guaranteed to provide a treasure-trove of scientific data, but make no mistake about it: this has been a dangerous mission. The rewards have been huge, but so were the risks.

FOR KIDS!!!

Zoom Into Space Series.

Published by Ruby Tuesday Books. 2014, 12 books, 24 pp. each, $287.20. www.bearportpublishing.com

Did you know that if the Sun were the size of a bowling ball, Earth would be smaller than a pea? Why is it that if you lived on Mercury, you would have a birthday every 88 days? The Zoom Into Space series takes young readers on a high-interest, accessible exploration of the solar system. The books combine solid science, technology, and math with odd and often quirky facts and astounding space photography. Children are fascinated by space, and this series bring the marvels of our solar system to life with a feeling of excitement that will engage young readers and build on their sense of wonder and curiosity. For grades pre-K to 3.

The Incredible Plate Tectonics Comic.

By Kanani K. M. Lee and Adam Wallenta. No Starch Press, 2014, 40 pp., Paperback, $7.95. www.nostarchpress.com

The Incredible Plate Tectonics Comic is a wild adventure in Earth science. Follow Geo and his robot dog, Rocky, as they travel back in time to Pangea, surf a tsunami, and escape an erupting volcano — all in time for Geo’s first-period science test! The journey starts 200 million years ago and takes you to modern-day Hawai’i, the ocean floor, and deep inside Earth. You’ll learn about how scientists developed the theory of plate tectonics, why Earth shakes, what’s in the center of Earth, and how volcanos can form islands. The Incredible Plate Tectonics Comic teaches geology in a fun, lively, and visual way. For ages 8 and up.

Saturn Could Sail and Other Fun Facts.

By Laura Lyn DiSiena and Hannah Eliot. Little Simon, 2014, 32 pp., $6.99. www.simonandschuster.com

3...2...1...Blast off with this book of fun facts about spaceships, planets, the Milky Way, and more. Did you know that Saturn is the least-dense planet in the solar system? If there were a body of water large enough to hold it, Saturn would float. And did you know that Astronaut Neil Armstrong was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor? Or that Earth could fit inside Jupiter more than 1000 times? Filled with tons of cool facts about outer space, plus colorful, humorous illustrations, this book is out of this world. For grades pre-K to 3.

Professor Noggin’s Outer Space Card Game.

Produced by Outset Media. 30 cards, 1 die and instructions, $9.99. www.professornoggin.com

Learn about outer space while having fun! Players take turns rolling the die and asking each other questions from the cards. If a question is answered correctly, the card is won, but if answered incorrectly, the card is returned to the bottom of the pile. The player with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner. Players have a few chances throughout the game to get a Noggin’s Choice card, which allows them to choose a card from any other player and pull ahead. For ages 7 and up.

Calendar 2015

January

6–8 12th Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), Phoenix, Arizona.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/

8–10 Conference on Spacecraft Reconnaissance of Asteroid and Comet Interiors 2015, Tempe, Arizona. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/astrorecon2015/

February

4–6 Workshop on Early Solar System Bombardment III, Houston, Texas. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/bombardment2015/

10–12 WISE at 5: Legacy and Prospects, Pasadena, California.
http://wise5.ipac.caltech.edu

11–13 Workshop on Collisions in the Solar System, Belgrade, Serbia. http://poincare.matf.bg.ac.rs/~bojan/ltw/ltw2.html

18 Workshop on the Potential for Finding Life in a Europa Plume, Moffett Field, California.
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/calendar/europa-plume-workshop/

19–20 Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) Meeting, Moffett Field, California.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/

23–27 Physics of Exoplanets: From Earth-Sized to Mini-Neptunes, Goleta, California.
http://www.kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/dbdetails?acro=EVOPLANETS-C15

24–26 Planetary Protection Course:
Policies and Practices, NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
http://planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/course

March

2–5 Ground and Space Observatories: A Joint Venture to Planetary Science, Santiago, Chile. http://www.eso.org/sci/meetings/2015/Planets2015.html

15–18 Ringberg Workshop on Spectroscopy with the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, Schloss Ringberg, Germany. https://indico.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/indico/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=93

16–20 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, The Woodlands, Texas.
http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/

23–27 Star and Planet Formation in the Southwest, Oracle, Arizona. https://lavinia.as.arizona.edu/~kkratter/SPF1/Home.html

24–26 Workshop on Planetary Protection Knowledge Gaps for Human Extraterrestrial Missions, Moffett Field, California. http://www.nasa.gov/ames/ppw2015workshop/

April

7–8 Workshop on Venus Science Priorities for Laboratory Measurements and Instrument Definition, Hampton, Virginia. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/venustech2015/

12–17 European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2015, Vienna, Austria. http://www.egu2015.eu/home.html

13–17 IAA Planetary Defense Conference, Frascati, Italy. http://pdc2015.org/

May

3–7 Joint Assembly AGI, GAC, MAC, CGU, Montreal, Canada. http://ja.agu.org/2015/

4–6 Life on Earth and Beyond: The History
and Philosophy of the Origin of Life,
Ven Island, Sweden.
http://www.nordicastrobiology.net/Ven2015/

4–6 Comparative Tectonics and Geodynamics of Venus, Earth, and Rocky Exoplanets, Pasadena, California. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/geodyn2015/

6–8 Exoplanets in Lund 2015, Lund, Sweden.
http://www.astro.lu.se/lundexoplanets2015/

19–21 Landolt Standards and 21st Century Photometry, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. http://www.phys.lsu.edu/landoltstandards/index.html

19–22 Fourth Annual International Planetary Dunes Workshop, Boise, Idaho. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/dunes2015/

19–22 Workshop on Issues in Crater Studies and the Dating of Planetary Surfaces, Laurel, Maryland. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/craterstats2015/

25–29 1st Advanced School on Exoplanetary Science, Salerno, Italy.
http://www.iiassvietri.it/ases2015.html

28–29 Emerging Researchers in Exoplanet Science Symposium, University Park, Pennsylvania. http://eres-symposium.org

June

2–4 Workshop on the Formation of the Solar System II, Bonn, Germany. https://indico.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/FormationOfTheSolarSystem2

7–12 22nd ESA Symposium on European
Rocket and Balloon Programmes and Related Research, Tromsø, Norway.
http://pac.spaceflight.esa.int

8–11 Autonomous Spacecraft Navigation: New Concepts, Technologies and Applications for the 21st Century, Bonn, Germany.
http://www.mpe.mpg.de/events/
593-heraeus-seminar/

9–11 The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) LCPM-11, Berlin, Germany.
http://www.dlr.de/LCPM11

13–14 Short Course: Radio Flyers, Cologne, Germany. http://www.planetaryprobe.eu

14–18 The Future and Science of Gemini Observatory, Toronto, Canada.
http://www.gemini.edu/fsg15

15–19 Astrobiology Science Conference 2015, Chicago, Illinois. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/abscicon2015/

22–26 In the Spirit of Bernard Lyot 2015:
Direct Detection of Exoplanets and Circumstellar Disks, Montreal, Canada.
http://craq-astro.ca/lyot2015/

28–Jul 3 Gordon Research Conference on Origins of Solar Systems, South Hadley, Massachusetts.
http://www.grc.org/programs.aspx?id=12345

29–Jul 1 13th Meeting of the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG), Washington, DC. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/sbag/

29–Jul 3 From Super-Earths to Brown Dwarfs: Who’s Who?, Paris, France. http://www.iap.fr/activites/colloques_ateliers/colloque_IAP/colloqueiap.php?annee=2015

July

6–8 The Second Workshop on Measuring Precise Radial Velocities, New Haven, Connecticut. http://exoplanets.astro.yale.edu/workshop/EPRV.php

21–23 NASA Exploration Science Forum, Moffett Field, California. http://sservi.nasa.gov/ESF2015

27–31 78th Annual Meteoritical Society
Meeting, Berkeley, California.
http://metsoc2015.ssl.berkeley.edu/

August

2–7 12th Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS), Singapore.
http://www.asiaoceania.org/aogs2015/

3–14 XXIX IAU General Assembly, Honolulu, Hawaii. http://astronomy2015.org

4–6 Second Landing Site Workshop for the Mars 2020 Rover, Pasadena, California.
http://marsnext.jpl.nasa.gov

17–21 Cosmic Dust, Tokyo, Japan.
https://www.cps-jp.org/~dust/Welcome.html

September

11–18 IRAM 30m Summerschool 2015, Pradollano, Spain. http://www.iram-institute.org/EN/content-page-308-7-67-308-0-0.html

October

9–15 OHP 2015: Twenty Years of Giant Exoplanets, Saint-Michel-l’Observatoire, France. http://ohp2015.sciencesconf.org

12–16 Exploring the Universe with JSWT, Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
http://congrexprojects.com/2015-events/
15a02/introduction

12–16 66th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2015), Jerusalem, Israel.
http://iac2015.org/

November

8–13 47th Annual DPS Meeting, National Harbor, Maryland. http://dps.aas.org/

9–13 2nd Symposium of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR): Water and Life in the Universe “COSPAR 2015,” Foz do Iguacu, Brazil. http://cosparbrazil2015.org/

29–Dec 4 Extreme Solar Systems III,
Waikoloa Beach, Hawaii.
http://ciera.northwestern.edu/Hawaii2015.php