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Earth and Moon As Seen From Saturn

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Earth as seen From Saturn, PhotoTaken by Cassini on July 19th 2013. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

It’s not too often that we see our world from afar but when we do it’s truly an amazing and humbling experience. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft was able to get into position next to the great planet of Saturn and take a look back at Earth from 900 million miles away. The image is in color and in high resolution, Earth is nothing but a blue dot with a small white dot next to it, that white dot is the Moon of course. Saturn’s rings reflect sunlight towards the camera and against the black backdrop of outer space, it looks truly beautiful.

Cassini’s picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space, and also testifies to the ingenuity of the citizens of this tiny planet to send a robotic spacecraft so far away from home to study Saturn and take a look-back photo of Earth.” Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

As NASA points out, pictures like these are very rare because Earth appears very close to the sun at that distance and trying to take a picture could ruin the camera’s sensitive electronics with that much sunlight hitting it. This is just one section of an image that will become a mosaic of Saturn’s rings. You can read the original article and see a full-resolution version of this image from NASA.

 

NASA 2020 Focus is Life on Mars

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Mars 2020 Rover Concept (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

On July 09, 2013 NASA discussed their outline for the 2020 Mars Rover. Their focus will be primarily on looking for signs of past life on the red planet as well as collecting samples to bring back to Earth for analysis.  The sample information could help with future manned missions to Mars as we would need to have a greater understanding of the resources available to us.

There are many hazards on the martian surface that must be better understood before we go sending our best to go walking around out there. Even the dust of Mars could be very dangerous to explorers, add into account the higher radiation levels and potential for wild weather and you could be in real trouble.

NASA’s 2020 mission aims to build on the tremendous success of Curiosity. The 2020 mission will not only look for signs of past life but also attempt to understand what it takes for life to take hold. NASA will also focus on how to use the resources on Mars to survive long periods of time on the planet. Creating oxygen, collecting carbon dioxide, and creating fuel are just a few examples of the engineering hurdles that the Mars 2020 mission could help us jump.

 The Mars 2020 mission concept does not presume that life ever existed on Mars, however, given the recent Curiosity findings, past Martian life seems possible, and we should begin the difficult endeavor of seeking the signs of life. No matter what we learn, we would make significant progress in understanding the circumstances of early life existing on Earth and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life.” – Jack Mustard, chairman of the Science Definition Team and a professor at the Geological Sciences at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

Want a more in-depth look at the future plans for Mars Rover missions? The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) offers a rich experience with the latest updates and multimedia.

 

Asteroid With It’s Own Moon

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Radar images of 1998 QE2 (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR)

What’s cooler than an asteroid? How about an astroid with it’s own moon!

The asteroid is 1998 QE2 and NASA scientists have used radar technology to take images of it, as seen at the top of this article. This type of asteroid is known as a binary asteroid and some even have two orbiting moons, those are referred to as triple systems. This asteroid is in the Near-Earth population of asteroids and is about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) in diameter.

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70 Meter Deep Space Network Antenna in Goldstone, Calif. ( Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR)

The image was taken May 29th, 2013 using the Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone California which is very large.

The antenna itself is 70 meters or 230 feet in diameter and that makes it the largest and most sensitive Deep Space Network antenna on Earth. The DSN antenna is capable of  tracking a spacecraft travelling more than 16 billion kilometers (10 billion miles) from Earth.

You can read the full article on this asteroid from NASA/JPL.

Two Galaxies Colliding

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Image credit: (ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UC Irvine/STScI/Keck/NRAO/SAO)

When it comes to massive events, Galaxies colliding is pretty high up on the list. Imagine billions of stars from two galaxies intermingling as two systems merge.

This is exactly what the Herschel space observatory has taken images of in this relatively rare event. The two galaxies together are called HXMM01 and are located about 11 billion light-years away from Earth. The merging galaxies are creating some 2,000 stars per year which is a lot when compared to our Milky Way galaxy which only creates about two to three stars per year.

This discovery is important as it gives us a rare glimpse into the early years of the universe and actually helps give us a clearer picture of how the largest galaxies in the universe are created. The most popular theory is that these massive systems are created by a larger galaxy picking up smaller ones, but this discovery shows us that they may actually be created by two massive galaxies colliding instead.

You can read the full article in detail on this subject from JPL/NASA.