Ocean Survey Spacecraft Arrives at Launch Site

Contact: Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

News Release: 2008-070 April 30, 2008

Ocean Survey Spacecraft Arrives at Launch Site

PASADENA, Calif. -- A NASA and French Space Agency (CNES) spacecraft designed to continue a
long-term survey of Earth's oceans has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., for final launch
preparations. The new satellite will study ocean circulation and the effect oceans have on weather,
climate and how Earth is responding to global climate change.

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission, called OSTM for short, will be flown on the Jason-2
spacecraft, which was transported on April 24 from its manufacturer, Thales Alenia Space, in Cannes,
France, to Toulouse, France. It was loaded onto a Boeing 747 aircraft for its trans-Atlantic journey
and after refueling in Boston, it arrived April 29 at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Following final tests,
it will be integrated onto a United Launch Alliance Delta II launch vehicle in preparation for a
planned launch in June.

With the launch of this satellite, the science of precisely measuring and studying the height of the sea
surface across Earth's oceans will come of age. Continuous collection of these measurements began
in 1992 with the NASA/CNES Topex/Poseidon mission and continued in 2001 with NASA/CNES's
Jason-1 mission, which is currently providing near-real-time data to a variety of users. The addition
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the European Organization
for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) as partners on OSTM/Jason-2 begins
transitioning the responsibility for collecting these data to weather and climate forecasting agencies,
which will use them for short-range and seasonal-to-long-range ocean forecasting.

The 15-plus-year climate data record that this mission will continue is the only one capable of
addressing how ocean circulation is linked to climate change and how global sea level, one of the
most important consequences and indicators of global climate change, is changing.

Satellite observations of Earth's oceans have revolutionized our understanding of global climate by
improving ocean models and hurricane forecasts, and identifying and tracking large
ocean/atmosphere phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña. The data are used every day in
applications as diverse as, for example, routing ships, improving the safety and efficiency of offshore
industry operations, managing fisheries and tracking marine mammals.

The spacecraft will be launched into a 1,336-kilometer (830-mile) circular, non-sun-synchronous
orbit at an inclination of 66 degrees to Earth's equator, allowing it to monitor 95 percent of Earth's
ice-free oceans every 10 days.

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 is an international and interagency mission
developed and operated as a four-party collaboration among NASA; NOAA; the French Space
Agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales; and EUMETSAT. CNES is providing the spacecraft,
NASA and CNES are jointly providing the payload instruments and NASA's Launch Services
Program at the Kennedy Space Center is responsible for the launch management and countdown
operations for the Delta II. After completing the on-orbit commissioning of the spacecraft, CNES will
hand over operation and control of the spacecraft to NOAA. NOAA and EUMETSAT will generate
the near-real-time products and distribute them to users. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is
managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information on the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2, visit:

http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/ostm.html

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First Light Newsletter - May 2008

FirstLight Newsletter May 2008


New Image Gallery Has an Eye for Beauty

JPL's new online Space Gallery captures the beauty of Earth, the solar system and the
universe in a single web site. A scrollable image navigation makes browsing easy,
and users can view individual planet "galleries" as slide shows. Pictures can also be
emailed to friends and searched for using "tags", or words that help describe the image.
Take your own tour at www.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery

Vote for JPL

The JPL home page has been nominated for a Webby Award in
the science category. The Webby is a leading international prize
honoring excellence on the Internet. The Webby Award includes a
People's Choice Award so please cast your vote. May 1 is the last
day to vote.
Go to the Webby voting page (http://pv.webbyawards.com/) (registration required)

JPL Open House: May 3 and 4

JPL rolls out the welcome mat for the public this weekend, May 3
and 4. Highlights for this year's Open House include watching 700-
pound robots glide under artificial stars in the Robodome and close-up
views of models of Mars rovers - past, present and future. Children
will be able to participate in many hands-on activities. The free event
runs 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.
Open House information: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pso/oh.cfm

Podcast: IT Came From Vesta
This new JPL podcast tells the tale of some Earthbound visitors from
the asteroid belt. Did they come from the solar system's second
largest asteroid - Vesta - and if so, why?
Listen now (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcast/dawn20080428/)


You can find more features at www.jpl.nasa.gov

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NASA Spacecraft Tracks Raging Saturn Storm

Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

Preston Dyches 720-974-5859
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
media@ciclops.org

Image Advisory: 2008-069 April 29, 2008

NASA Spacecraft Tracks Raging Saturn Storm

PASADENA, Calif. -- As a powerful electrical storm rages on Saturn with lightning bolts 10,000
times more powerful than those found on Earth, the Cassini spacecraft continues its five-month
watch over the dramatic events.

Scientists with NASA's Cassini-Huygens mission have been tracking the visibly bright,
lightning-generating storm--the longest continually observed electrical storm ever monitored by
Cassini.

Saturn's electrical storms resemble terrestrial thunderstorms, but on a much larger scale. Storms
on Saturn have diameters of several thousand kilometers (thousands of miles), and radio signals
produced by their lightning are thousands of times more powerful than those produced by
terrestrial thunderstorms.

Color images of the storm are available at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://ciclops.org .

Lightning flashes within the persistent storm produce radio waves called Saturn electrostatic
discharges, which the radio and plasma wave science instrument first detected on Nov. 27, 2007.
Cassini's imaging cameras monitored the position and appearance of the storm, first spotting it
about a week later, on Dec. 6.

"The electrostatic radio outbursts have waxed and waned in intensity for five months now," said
Georg Fischer, an associate with the radio and plasma wave science team at the University of
Iowa, Iowa City. "We saw similar storms in 2004 and 2006 that each lasted for nearly a month,
but this storm is longer-lived by far. And it appeared after nearly two years during which we did
not detect any electrical storm activity from Saturn."

The new storm is located in Saturn's southern hemisphere--in a region nicknamed "Storm Alley"
by mission scientists--where the previous lightning storms were observed by Cassini.
"In order to see the storm, the imaging cameras have to be looking at the right place at the right
time, and whenever our cameras see the storm, the radio outbursts are there," said Ulyana
Dyudina, an associate of the Cassini imaging team at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, Calif.

Cassini's radio plasma wave instrument detects the storm every time it rotates into view, which
happens every 10 hours and 40 minutes, the approximate length of a Saturn day. Every few
seconds the storm gives off a radio pulse lasting for about a tenth of a second, which is typical of
lightning bolts and other electrical discharges. These radio waves are detected even when the
storm is over the horizon as viewed from Cassini, a result of the bending of radio waves by the
planet's atmosphere.

Amateur astronomers have kept track of the storm over its five-month lifetime. "Since Cassini's
camera cannot track the storm every day, the amateur data are invaluable," said Fischer. "I am in
continuous contact with astronomers from around the world."

The long-lived storm will likely provide information on the processes powering Saturn's intense
lightning activity. Cassini scientists will continue to monitor Storm Alley as the seasons change,
bringing the onset of autumn to the planet's southern hemisphere.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency
and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the Cassini mission for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard
cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. The radio and plasma wave science team is based at the
University of Iowa, Iowa City.

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Galaxy Evolution Explorer Celebrates Five Years in Space

Feature April 28, 2008


Galaxy Evolution Explorer Celebrates Five Years in Space



Since its launch five years ago, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer has photographed
hundreds of millions of galaxies in ultraviolet light. M106 is one of those
galaxies, and from 22 light years away, it strikes a pose in blue and gold for this
new commemorative portrait.

The galaxy's extended arms are the blue filaments that curve around its edge,
creating its outer disk. Tints of blue in M106's arms reveal hot, young massive
stars. Traces of gold toward the center show an older stellar population and
indicate the presence of obscuring dust.

"We see these arms in optical-light images, but they are very faint and diffuse.
These structures really pop out in the ultraviolet due to the exquisite sensitivity of
the detectors on the Galaxy Evolution Explorer," said Mark Seibert of the
Carnegie Institution of Washington in Pasadena, Calif.

From 24 million light-years away, neighboring galaxy NGC 4248 also makes a
memorable appearance, sitting just right of M106. The irregular galaxy looks like
a yellow smudge, with a bluish-white bar in the center. The galaxy's outer golden
glow indicates a population of older stars, while the blue central region shows a
younger stellar demographic.

Dwarf galaxy UGC 7365 emerges at the bottom center of this image, as a faint
yellow smudge directly below M106. This galaxy is not forming any new stars,
and looks much smaller than M106 despite being closer to Earth, at 14 million
light-years away.

Over the past five years, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer has imaged half a billion
objects over 27,000 square degrees of sky -- equivalent to an area that would be
covered by 138,000 full moons. The telescope orbits Earth every 94 minutes and
travels approximately 408,470 million miles per day. Its overarching question is:
how do galaxies grow and change over 10 billion years of cosmic history?

"Frankly we have only begun to scratch the surface of this vast data set.
Astronomers will be mining the telescope's data archive for the next decade," said
Chris Martin, of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. He is
principal investigator for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission, which is
managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

M106, also known as NGC 4258, is located in the constellation Canes Venatici.
This image is a two-color composite, where far-ultraviolet light is blue, and near-
ultraviolet light is red.

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: April 21-25, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
April 21-25, 2008

o Coprates Chasma (Released 21 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080421a

o Elysium Fossae (Released 22 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080422a

o Aeolis Landslides (Released 23 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080423a

o Rim Channels (Released 24 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080424a

o Montevallo Crater (Released 25 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080425a

All of the THEMIS images are archived here:

http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission
Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University,
Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing.
The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State
University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor
for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission
operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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MRO HiRISE Images - April 23, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
April 23, 2008

o Layered Sediments in Hellas Planitia

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007820_1505

o Proposed MSL Landing Site: Mawrth Vallis - Ellipse 4

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007243_2050

o Craters Within a Crater

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_006726_1830

o Proposed MSL Landing Site: Eberswalde Crater

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007270_1560

All of the HiRISE images are archived here:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA
Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by t
he University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo.,
built the HiRISE instrument.

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Mars Exploration Rover Status Report

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-068 April 23, 2008

Mars Exploration Rover Status Report

A small motor in the robotic arm of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity that
began stalling occasionally more than two years ago has become more troublesome
recently.

Rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are diagnosing
why the motor, one of five in the robotic arm, stalled on April 14 after much less motion
that day than in the case of several earlier stalls. They are also examining whether the
motor can be used and assessing the impact on Opportunity's work if the motor were no
longer usable.

The motor controls sideways motion at the shoulder joint of the rover robotic arm. Other
motors provide up-and-down motion at the shoulder and maneuverability at the elbow
and wrist. A turret at the end of the arm has four tools that the arm places in contact with
rocks and soils to study their composition and texture.

"Even under the worst-case scenario for this motor, Opportunity still has the capability to
do some contact science with the arm," said JPL's John Callas, project manager for the
twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit. "The vehicle has quite a bit of versatility to continue
the high-priority investigations in Victoria Crater and back out on the Meridiani plains
after exiting the crater."

The performance of the motor in the past week is consistent with increased resistance in
the electrical circuit, such as from degrading of wire in the winding, rather than a
mechanical jam. Additional tests are planned for checking whether the apparent
resistance is localized or intermittent.

Opportunity and Spirit landed on Mars in January 2004 to begin missions originally
planned for three months. They have continued operating for more than four years,
though each with some signs of aging.

Opportunity's balky shoulder motor began stalling occasionally in November 2005. The
motor could still be operated by applying increased voltage. Engineers assessed it has an
increased likelihood of becoming unusable, however, so the team changed its standard
procedures for stowing and unstowing the arm.

Until then, on days when the arm would not be used, the team kept it stowed, resting on a
hook under the front of the rover deck. Motion of the stall-prone shoulder motor is
necessary to unstow the arm, so if the motor were to become unusable with the arm in the
stowed position, the arm could not be deployed again. With diminished confidence in the
balky motor, the team began unstowing the arm at the end of each day's drive rather than
leaving it stowed overnight. This keeps the arm available for use even if the motor then
stops working.

This spring, Opportunity is crossing an inner slope of Victoria Crater to reach the base of
a cliff portion of the crater rim, a promontory called "Cape Verde." On April 14,
Opportunity was backing out of a sandy patch encountered on the path toward Cape
Verde from the area where the rover descended into the crater. As usual, the commands
included unstowing the arm at the end of the day's short drive. The shoulder motor barely
got the arm unstowed before stalling.

"We'll hold off backing out of the sand until after we've completed the diagnostic tests on
the motor," Callas said. "The rover is stable and safe in its current situation, and not
under any urgency. So we will take the time to act cautiously."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars
Exploration Rover project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
Additional information about Spirit and Opportunity is available online at

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers.

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JPL Invites Public to Open House

Rhea R. Borja
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Rhea.R.Borja@jpl.nasa.gov

News Release: 2008-067 April 22, 2008

JPL Invites Public to Open House

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will welcome members of the public to its
Open House on Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4. Children will be able to participate in
many hands-on activities.

At this free, all-day event, visitors can watch 700-pound robots glide under artificial stars in
JPL's Robodome, get an up-close view of full-scale models of Mars rovers, and learn how
spacecraft are prepared for their journeys in special clean rooms.

They will see numerous solar system, robotics and Earth science exhibits and learn about various
space missions, including the Mars Phoenix Lander, scheduled to land on the Red Planet on May
25. Visitors can also see how NASA instruments measure greenhouse gases, which will help
scientists better understand global climate change.

JPL's Open House begins at 9 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. on both days. JPL is located at 4800 Oak
Grove Drive, Pasadena, Calif. Parking is free.

Please note that all vehicles entering NASA/JPL property are subject to inspection. Visitors
should wear comfortable shoes -- no buses will be provided from JPL parking lots to the lab. JPL
will provide vans for mobility-challenged guests.

Please note that the following items are banned from entering NASA/JPL property: weapons,
explosives, incendiary devices, dangerous instruments, alcohol, illegal drugs, pets, all types of
skates including skateboards, Segways and bicycles. No bags, backpacks or ice chests are
allowed, except small purses and diaper bags.

More information on JPL's Open House is online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pso/oh.cfm .
Directions to JPL are at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/maps.cfm .

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.

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Larger Pacific Climate Event Helps Current La Nina Linger

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

Image Advisory: 2008-066 April 21, 2008

Larger Pacific Climate Event Helps Current La Nina Linger

PASADENA, Calif. -- Boosted by the influence of a larger climate event in the Pacific, one of
the strongest La Ninas in many years is slowly weakening but continues to blanket the Pacific
Ocean near the equator, as shown by new sea-level height data collected by the U.S.-French
Jason oceanographic satellite.

The new image is available online at:
http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-quick-look/2008/images/20080401P.jpg .

This La Nina, which has persisted for the past year, is indicated by the blue area in the center of
the image along the equator. Blue indicates lower than normal sea level (cold water). The data
were gathered in early April.

The image also shows that this La Nina is occurring within the context of a larger climate event,
the early stages of a cool phase of the basin-wide Pacific Decadal Oscillation. The Pacific
Decadal Oscillation is a long-term fluctuation of the Pacific Ocean that waxes and wanes
between cool and warm phases approximately every five to 20 years. In the cool phase, higher
than normal sea-surface heights caused by warm water form a horseshoe pattern that connects the
north, west and southern Pacific, with cool water in the middle. During most of the 1980s and
1990s, the Pacific was locked in the oscillation's warm phase, during which these warm and cool
regions are reversed. For an explanation of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and its present state,
see: http://jisao.washington.edu/pdo/ and http://www.esr.org/pdo_index.html .

A La Nina is essentially the opposite of an El Nino. During El Nino, trade winds weaken and
warm water occupies the entire tropical Pacific Ocean. Heavy rains tied to the warm water move
into the central Pacific Ocean and cause drought in Indonesia and Australia while altering the
path of the atmospheric jet stream over North and South America. During La Nina, trade winds
are stronger than normal. Cold water that usually sits along the coast of South America is pushed
to the middle of the equatorial Pacific. A La Nina changes global weather patterns and is
associated with less moisture in the air, and less rain along the coasts of North and South
America.

"This multi-year Pacific Decadal Oscillation 'cool' trend can intensify La Nina or diminish El
Nino impacts around the Pacific basin," said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer and climatologist at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The persistence of this large-scale pattern
tells us there is much more than an isolated La Nina occurring in the Pacific Ocean."

Sea surface temperature satellite data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration also clearly show a cool Pacific Decadal Oscillation pattern, as seen at:

http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/map/images/sst/sst.anom.gif .

The shift in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, with its widespread Pacific Ocean temperature
changes, will have significant implications for global climate. It can affect Pacific and Atlantic
hurricane activity, droughts and flooding around the Pacific basin, marine ecosystems and global
land temperature patterns.

"The comings and goings of El Nino, La Nina and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation are part of a
longer, ongoing change in global climate," said Josh Willis, a JPL oceanographer and climate
scientist. Sea level rise and global warming due to increases in greenhouse gases can be strongly
affected by large natural climate phenomenon such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the El
Nino-Southern Oscillation. "In fact," said Willis, "these natural climate phenomena can
sometimes hide global warming caused by human activities. Or they can have the opposite effect
of accentuating it."

Jason's follow-on mission, the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2, is scheduled for
launch this June and will extend to two decades the continuous data record of sea surface heights
begun by Topex/Poseidon in 1992. JPL manages the U.S. portion of the Jason mission for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.

For more information on NASA's ocean surface topography missions, see:

http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/ ; or to view the latest Jason data, visit:

http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-quick-look/ .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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JPL Earth Scientists Reflect on Earth Day

JPL Earth Scientists Reflect on Earth Day

In commemoration of Earth Day on Tuesday, April 22, we asked JPL Earth
scientists to reflect on the event and what it means to them. Here are some of
their responses:

"My father was a biologist who brought his family from Cuba to the United States.
I still remember as a boy long walks with him on the beach as he pointed out the
different organisms and the beauty of our planet. Those long walks instilled in me
a love for understanding our planet, and more importantly, the desire to make
sure we are good stewards of the precious gift we call planet Earth."

- Jorge Vazquez, Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center task
scientist


"At NASA, every day is Earth Day. After all our explorations of the universe, we
are still awed by our own miracle planet and reminded daily that we have only
one Earth. But we also see warning signs posted all over our home. Oceans are
warming and rising, glaciers are retreating, our atmosphere carries pollution to all
nations, forests are disappearing and our out-of-control population growth is
crushing the environment. Yet Earth is a tough old gal, and we still control our
collective future. Earth Day is a time for us to pause and consider how each of
us, all of us, can work together as trustees of our home, Earth, to benefit our
collective future."

- Bill Patzert, climatologist


"At the moment I am working with a number of JPL colleagues on the topic of
global change and the role that JPL and NASA can play in this process. The
considerable talent and expertise of the people I have the opportunity to work
with in conjunction with their and JPL's sincere intentions to contribute to this
very important global problem make Earth Day particularly meaningful and going
to 'work' extremely fun!"

- Duane Waliser, senior research scientist


"I study Earth science because I want to know: 'What will the future bring?'"

- Tony Mannucci, Ionospheric and Atmospheric Remote Sensing Group


"NASA and international space agencies are collaborating to study the polar
regions of Earth in ways that have never been done in the past. Observations
gathered by satellites as well as field parties on the ground have shown that the
vast expanses of ice in Greenland and Antarctica are melting away in response
to climate warming. We are now putting all our efforts to be able to predict how
ice will melt in the coming century because ice melt raises global sea level and
the impact this will have on coastal populations will be significant--some
populations will have to leave their homes and move inland."

- Eric Rignot, senior research scientist


"I have been working at JPL for 10 years, mainly on developing and using radar
satellites to study vegetation all over the world. Radars allow us to measure
vegetation changes and some characteristics of its structure, such as height and
biomass (the amount of material in the forest). This enables measurement of the
impact of climate change on vegetation. How do they contribute to the
atmosphere (example: oxygen, carbon dioxide) and other life forms (human and
animals) on Earth? Are forests destroyed? Can they survive climate change?"

- Marc Simard, senior scientist, radar systems

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: April 14-18, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
April 14-18, 2008

o Noctis Labyrinthus (Released 14 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080414a

o Channels (Released 15 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080415a

o Arkhangelsky Dunes (Released 16 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080416a

o Melas Chasma (Released 17 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080417a

o Newton Crater (Released 18 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080418a

All of the THEMIS images are archived here:

http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission
Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University,
Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing.
The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State
University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor
for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission
operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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MRO HiRISE Images - April 16, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
April 16, 2008

o Proposed MSL Landing Site in Mawrth Vallis - Ellipse 2

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007612_2045

o Proposed MSL Landing Site in Eberswalde Crater

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007481_1560

o Large Southern Hemisphere Gully

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007126_1210

o Gullies in Utopia Planitia

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_006724_2165

All of the HiRISE images are archived here:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA
Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by t
he University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo.,
built the HiRISE instrument.

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Saturn Images Showcased in New York City

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-065 April 17, 2008

Saturn Images Showcased in New York City

A selection of the best images from Saturn, its rings and moons will appear in an exhibition
opening on April 26 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The show, called "Saturn: Images from the Cassini-Huygens Mission," will run through March
29, 2009. It features dramatic, up-close-and-personal images in small individual views and
super-large mosaics. Roughly 50 images taken by the Cassini-Huygens mission in visible light,
infrared and radar have been hand-picked by a team of Cassini scientists.

"The images show the Saturn system as we had never seen it before. They perfectly blend
exploration, science and beauty," said Joe Burns, the exhibit's guest co-curator and a Cassini
imaging scientist at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. "We are excited to have the opportunity to
show these breathtaking photographs to the broader public in one of the world's greatest science
museums." Burns, along with colleagues at Cornell University and on the Cassini project, has
been collaborating with museum curators for the past year on the image selection, scientific
captions and exhibit design.

The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn for nearly four years. It is the first orbiter
to study Saturn in detail. The piggybacked Huygens probe, provided by the European Space
Agency, plunged through the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in 2005. Huygens was
the first probe to land on the surface of a moon other than our own. The orbiter and probe have
shown birdseye and ground-level views of Titan, an Earth-like world featuring river valley
networks and lakes filled with hydrocarbons. Cassini has discovered water-ice geysers spewing
from Enceladus, a smaller moon of Saturn, and has detected five new moons and observed a very
dynamic ring system.

For exhibition information see: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/photo/saturn/ . More
information about the Cassini-Huygens mission is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

and

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency
and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

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New Atlases Use NASA Data to Chart Ocean Winds

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Alan Buis 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-064 April 17, 2008

New Atlases Use NASA Data to Chart Ocean Winds

Several new atlases of ocean wind patterns around the globe, based on data from NASA's
QuikScat satellite, are benefiting a wide range of users, from those who sail the seas to those
responsible for managing their precious resources.

Researchers compiled seven years of QuikScat data to create a never-before-available monthly
atlas of how frequently high winds blow over the open ocean all over the world. The maps, which
show where gales (winds greater than 39 knots or 45 miles per hour) are common, are available
at http://iprc.soest.hawaii.edu/~takeaki/highwind/ . A paper on the findings was published
recently in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society by researchers Takeaki Sampe
and Shang-Ping Xie of the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii at
Manoa.

Navigators can use these data to chart shipping routes. Energy companies can use the information
to determine where to place oil rigs and plan offshore wind farms. Marine resource managers can
use the data to help prevent coastal erosion and track oil spills. The U.S. Coast Guard and other
organizations can use the data to conduct search and rescue efforts.

The data also provide insights into many ocean wind phenomena. High winds play an important
role in Earth's climate. They remove heat from the ocean, leading to the formation of "deep
water" -- cold, salty, dense water that helps drive global ocean circulation patterns. They also
help exchange gases, such as carbon dioxide, between the oceans and the atmosphere, mix
different types of ocean water, and pump nutrients up from the deep sea for plankton to feed on.

Among the researchers' findings:

* Earth's windiest ocean location is Cape Farewell, Greenland, where gale winds blow 16
percent of the time.
* Half of the top 10 windiest spots occur where tall coastlines or high mountains meet the sea.
* Strong winds are much more frequent on the warm side of cold-warm fronts formed where
the Atlantic's warm Gulf Stream flows northward into cold ocean regions. This gives climate
scientists important clues about how sharp differences in ocean surface temperatures affect
the atmosphere, with warm ocean temperatures creating an unstable atmosphere that sucks
strong winds down from aloft.
* Typhoons and hurricanes have little impact on the frequency of overall high winds, since they
are less frequent than other types of storms in Earth's mid-latitudes.

"People know high winds are found in big storms," said Xie. "What is most surprising from our
research is that narrow ocean currents have such a large effect on the occurrence of high winds.
For example, in cold meanders (bends) of the Atlantic's Gulf Stream, the frequency of high winds
drops by an order of magnitude. This knowledge can provide navigators with a 'safe harbor' for
ships."

Another NASA-funded wind atlas based on QuikScat data was published in late 2006 by
researchers Craig Risien and Dudley Chelton of the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Sciences, Corvallis, Ore., in the journal Remote Sensing of Environment. The first high-
resolution, observationally-based, online interactive atlas of global ocean winds, it provides
highly accurate, global information on wind statistics throughout Earth's oceans. These data are
especially important in regions of the world where there are few ships and buoys to gather data.
The resolution of the data is equivalent to having data from about 150,000 ocean buoys
distributed uniformly across the global oceans. It is available online at

http://cioss.coas.oregonstate.edu/cogow .

Risien and Chelton are also authors of another QuikScat winds atlas currently in press for the
Journal of Physical Oceanography. It documents the seasonal cycles of numerous wind variables,
and is available for download at http://cioss.coas.oregonstate.edu/scow . This new database is
specifically designed for ocean modelers to use in climate studies.

QuikScat, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., measures ocean
surface winds by transmitting high-frequency microwave pulses to Earth's ocean surface and
measuring the strength of the radar pulses that bounce back to the instrument. These ocean
surface winds drive Earth's oceans and control the exchange of heat, moisture and gases between
the atmosphere and the sea. For more information on QuikScat, see:

http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm .

Additional media contact: Gisela Speidel, International Pacific Research Center, University of
Hawaii at Manoa, 808-956-9252, gspeidel@hawaii.edu .

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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NASA Statement on Student Asteroid Calculations

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov
NEWS RELEASE: 2008-063 April 16, 2008

NASA Statement on Student Asteroid Calculations

PASADENA, Calif. -- The Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., has not changed its current estimates for the very low
probability (1 in 45,000) of an Earth impact by the asteroid Apophis in 2036.

Contrary to recent press reports, NASA offices involved in near-Earth object research
were not contacted and have had no correspondence with a young German student, who
claims the Apophis impact probability is far higher than the current estimate.

This student's conclusion reportedly is based on the possibility of a collision with an
artificial satellite during the asteroid's close approach in April 2029. However, the
asteroid will not pass near the main belt of geosynchronous satellites in 2029, and the
chance of a collision with a satellite is exceedingly remote.

Therefore, consideration of this satellite collision scenario does not affect the current
impact probability estimate for Apophis, which remains at 1 in 45,000.

NASA detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth. The Near Earth
Object Observation Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers, characterizes
and computes trajectories for these objects to determine if any could be potentially
hazardous to our planet.

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

For more information about JPL on the Internet, visit www.jpl.nasa.gov . For
information about NASA, visit www.nasa.gov .

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Stellar Birth in the Galactic Wilderness

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

IMAGE ADVISORY: 2008-061 April 16, 2008

Stellar Birth in the Galactic Wilderness

A new image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows baby stars sprouting
in the backwoods of a galaxy -- a relatively desolate region of space more
than 100,000 light-years from the galaxy's bustling center.

The striking image, a composite of ultraviolet data from the Galaxy Evolution
Explorer and radio data from the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array
in New Mexico, shows the Southern Pinwheel galaxy, also known simply as M83.

In the new view, the main spiral, or stellar, disk of M83 looks like a pink and
blue pinwheel, while its outer arms appear to flap away from the galaxy like giant
red streamers. It is within these so-called extended galaxy arms that, to the
surprise of astronomers, new stars are forming.

"It is absolutely stunning that we find such an enormous number of young stars up
to 140,000 light-years away from the center of M83," said Frank Bigiel of the Max
Planck Institute for Astronomy in Germany, lead investigator of the new Galaxy
Evolution Explorer observations. For comparison, the diameter of M83 is only
40,000 light-years across.

The new image is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/20080416.html .

Some of the "outback" stars in M83's extended arms were first spotted by the Galaxy
Evolution Explorer in 2005. Remote stars were also discovered around other galaxies
by the ultraviolet telescope over subsequent years. This came as a surprise to
astronomers because the outlying regions of a galaxy are assumed to be relatively
barren and lack high concentrations of the ingredients needed for stars to form.

The newest Galaxy Evolution Explorer observations of M83 (colored blue and green)
were taken over a longer period of time and reveal many more young clusters of stars
at the farthest reaches of the galaxy. To better understand how stars could form in
such unexpected territory, Bigiel and his colleagues turned to radio observations
from the Very Large Array (red). Light emitted in the radio portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum can be used to locate gaseous hydrogen atoms, or raw ingredients of stars. When
the astronomers combined the radio and Galaxy Evolution Explorer data, they were
delighted to see they matched up.

"The degree to which the ultraviolet emission and therefore the distribution of young
stars follows the distribution of the atomic hydrogen gas out to the largest distances
is absolutely remarkable," said Fabian Walter, also of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy,
who led the radio observations of hydrogen in the galaxy.

The astronomers speculate that the young stars seen far out in M83 could have formed under
conditions resembling those of the early universe, a time when space was not yet enriched
with dust and heavier elements.

"Even with today's most powerful telescopes, it is extremely difficult to study the first
generation of star formation. These new observations provide a unique opportunity to
study how early generation stars might have formed," said co-investigator Mark Seibert
of the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Pasadena.

M83 is located 15 million light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra.

Other investigators include: Barry Madore of The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution
of Washington; Armando Gil de Paz of the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain; David
Thilker of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; Elias Brinks of the University of
Hertfordshire, England; and Erwin de Blok of the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena leads the Galaxy Evolution Explorer
mission and is responsible for science operations and data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, also in Pasadena, manages the mission and built the science instrument.
Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program
managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Researchers sponsored by
Yonsei University in South Korea and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) in
France collaborated on this mission.

The Very Large Array is part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, a facility
of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

Additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/galex and http://www.galex.caltech.edu .

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CAN I TRUST YOU.

CAN I TRUST YOU FROM IRAQ.
From: Sgt.GERALD MORGAN.
US ARMY IN IRAQ.
email: gmusamryiraq@gmail.com

My name is sgt.GERALD MORGAN, I am with the US army and I am serving in the
military of the 1st Armored Division in Iraq. my partner and I moved funds
belonging to late Saddam Hussein,$10,000,000.00 (Ten million US dollars)
this money is being kept safe.

Click on this link to read about events that took place here
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm

Basically since we are working for the American government we cannot keep
these funds,but we want to transfer and move the funds to you so that you
can keep it for us in your safe account or an offshore account. We will
divide the total funds in three ways, since we are 2 that is involved.This
means that you will take 30%, I will take 30%, and my partner will take
30%,10% will be kept aside for expenses.This business is confidential,and it
should not be discussed with anyone.There is no risk involved whatsoever if
you are interested I will send you the full details,my job is to find a good
partner that we can trust and that will assist us.

Can I trust you?
When you receive this mail,kindly send me an e-mail signifying your
interest including your most confidential telephone/fax numbers or by email
for quick communication details and remember this business is risk free.

Awaiting your prompt reply urgently.

Sgt. GERALD MORGAN.

CONTACT MR.Alexander Maestri

CONTACT MR.Alexander Maestri
CONFIRM YOUR WINNING
POSTCODE LOTERIJ-NL
Postbus 3074,2280GB
Rijswijk,The Netherlands
www.postcodeloterij.nl

Dear Winner,

we are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual
final draws Euro Online Promotions held in Rotterdam,The Netherlands on
the 11th april,2008.
The online cyber lotto draws was conducted from an exclusive list of
500,000 e-mail addresses of individuals and corporate bodies selected by
an advanced automated random computer search from the internet.
No tickets were sold.The selected e-mail addresses were attached to
tickets numbers which were spinned by our ballot machine.After this
automated computer ballot,your e-mail address attached to ticket
number:7160043, emerged as one of the ten winners in the category "B"
with the following winning informations:

REFERENCE N0 :KH067/0068183JK.
BATCH N0: KC/977/0617569601.
PRIZE NO: PR/CA08/54302.

You have been approved for a payment of EURO 1,000,000.00(one million
EURO)Be advised to keep your winning information confidential until your
claims has been processed and remitted to you. This is part of our security
protocol to avoid double claims and unwarranted abuse of this program.
Your prize has also been insured with your winning e-mail address.Confirm
this by:

CONTACTING BELOW MENTIONED OFFICE ON E-MAIL ADDRESS FOR
CLAIMS,WITH YOUR NAME,TELEPHONE/FAX AND YOUR WINNING NUMBERS.

contact Tel:+31-634-667-952.
Contact Person:MR.Alexander Maestri
Contact Email: remittmailsns@aol.com

Congratulation once again.

Yours faithfully,
Alexander Maestri
Games/Loterij Coordinator.

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Multimedia Advisory: Bonus Round at Saturn - Audio and Video

Multimedia Advisory April 15, 2008


Bonus Round at Saturn: Audio and Video


Get behind-the-scenes insights into how the Cassini spacecraft will spend its newly announced two years of bonus time around Saturn.
The mission has already beamed back nearly 140,000 images and a boatload of information during its original four-year journey.

Check out two new multimedia products:

- Audio podcast: How the bonus time will include new information about Titan's Earthlike traits, and Old Faithful-like geysers on Enceladus.
Online at: www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcast/cassini20080415/ .

- Video: How Cassini engineers mapped out the spacecraft's travel plans to get the most intriguing science opportunities.
Online at: www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/cassini/20080415/

.

Both products are also available through iTunes and other podcasting sites.

-end-

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NASA Extends Cassini's Grand Tour of Saturn

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-060 April 15, 2008

NASA Extends Cassini's Grand Tour of Saturn

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA is extending the international Cassini-Huygens mission by two
years. The historic spacecraft's stunning discoveries and images have revolutionized our
knowledge of Saturn and its moons.

Cassini's mission originally had been scheduled to end in July 2008. The newly-announced two-
year extension will include 60 additional orbits of Saturn and more flybys of its exotic moons.
These will include 26 flybys of Titan, seven of Enceladus, and one each of Dione, Rhea and
Helene. The extension also includes studies of Saturn's rings, its complex magnetosphere, and
the planet itself.

"This extension is not only exciting for the science community, but for the world to continue to
share in unlocking Saturn's secrets," said Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, NASA
Headquarters, Washington. "New discoveries are the hallmarks of its success, along with the
breathtaking images beamed back to Earth that are simply mesmerizing."

"The spacecraft is performing exceptionally well and the team is highly motivated, so we're
excited at the prospect of another two years," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

Based on findings from Cassini, scientists think liquid water may be just beneath the surface of
Saturn's moon Enceladus. That's why the small moon, only one-tenth the size of Titan and one-
seventh the size of Earth's moon, is one of the highest-priority targets for the extended mission.

Cassini discovered geysers of water-ice jetting from the Enceladus surface. The geysers, which
shoot out at a distance three times the diameter of Enceladus, feed particles into Saturn's most
expansive ring. In the extended mission, the spacecraft may come as close as 25 kilometers (15
miles) from the moon's surface.

Cassini's observations of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, have given scientists a glimpse of what
Earth might have been like before life evolved. They now believe Titan possesses many parallels
to Earth, including lakes, rivers, channels, dunes, rain, snow, clouds, mountains and possibly
volcanoes.

"When we designed the original tour, we really did not know what we would find, especially at
Enceladus and Titan," said Dennis Matson, the JPL Cassini project scientist. "This extended tour
is responding to these new discoveries and giving us a chance to look for more."

Unlike Earth, Titan's lakes, rivers and rain are composed of methane and ethane, and
temperatures reach a chilly minus 180 degrees Celsius (minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit). Although
Titan's dense atmosphere limits viewing the surface, Cassini's high-resolution radar coverage and
imaging by the infrared spectrometer have given scientists a better look.

Other activities for Cassini scientists will include monitoring seasons on Titan and Saturn,
observing unique ring events, such as the 2009 equinox when the sun will be in the plane of the
rings, and exploring new places within Saturn's magnetosphere.

Cassini has returned a daily stream of data from Saturn's system for almost four years. Its travel
scrapbook includes nearly 140,000 images, and information gathered during 62 revolutions
around Saturn, 43 flybys of Titan and 12 close flybys of the icy moons.

More than 10 years after launch and almost four years after entering into orbit around Saturn,
Cassini is a healthy and robust spacecraft. Three of its science instruments have minor ailments,
but the impact on science-gathering is minimal. The spacecraft will have enough propellant left
after the extended mission to potentially allow a third phase of operations. Data from the
extended mission could lay the groundwork for possible new missions to Titan and Enceladus.

Cassini launched Oct. 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a seven-year journey to Saturn,
traversing 3.5 billion kilometers (2.2 billion miles). It is one of the most scientifically capable
spacecraft ever launched, with a record 12 instruments on the orbiter and six more instruments
on the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, which piggybacked a ride to Titan on Cassini.
Cassini receives electrical power from three radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which
generate electricity from heat produced by the natural decay of plutonium. The spacecraft was
captured into Saturn orbit in June 2004 and immediately began returning data to Earth.

More information is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency
and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: April 7-11, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
April 7-11, 2008

o Dunes (Released 07 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080407a

o Dark Slope Streaks (Released 08 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080408a

o More Dark Slope Streaks (Released 09 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080409a

o Huo Hsing Vallis (Released 10 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080410a

o Arsia Mons Lava (Released 11 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080411a

All of the THEMIS images are archived here:

http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission
Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University,
Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing.
The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State
University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor
for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission
operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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MRO HiRISE Images - April 9, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
April 9, 2008

o Phobos Imaged by HiRISE

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/phobos.php

o Eroding Mesas Forming Seif and Barchan Dunes

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007676_1385

o Proposed MSL Landing Site in Mawrth Vallis - Ellipse 1

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007678_2050

o Crater Floor Fan

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007696_1720

All of the HiRISE images are archived here:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA
Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by t
he University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo.,
built the HiRISE instrument.

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NASA Spacecraft Fine Tunes Course for Mars Landing

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Sara Hammond 520-626-1974
University of Arizona, Tucson
shammond@lpl.arizona.edu

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-059 April 10, 2008

NASA Spacecraft Fine Tunes Course for Mars Landing

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA engineers have adjusted the flight path of the Phoenix Mars
Lander, setting the spacecraft on course for its May 25 landing on the Red Planet.

"This is our first trajectory maneuver targeting a specific location in the northern polar
region of Mars," said Brian Portock, chief of the Phoenix navigation team at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The mission's two prior trajectory maneuvers,
made last August and October, adjusted the flight path of Phoenix to intersect with Mars.

NASA has conditionally approved a landing site in a broad, flat valley informally called
"Green Valley." A final decision will be made after NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
takes additional images of the area this month.

The orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera has taken more than
three dozen images of the area. Analysis of those images prompted the Phoenix team to
shift the center of the landing target 13 kilometers (8 miles) southeastward, away from
slightly rockier patches to the northwest. Navigators used that new center for planning
today's maneuver.

The landing area is an ellipse about 62 miles by about 12 miles (100 kilometers by 20
kilometers). Researchers have mapped more than five million rocks in and around that
ellipse, each big enough to end the mission if hit by the spacecraft during landing.
Knowing where to avoid the rockier areas, the team has selected a scientifically exciting
target that also offers the best chances for the spacecraft to set itself down safely onto the
Martian surface.
"Our landing area has the largest concentration of ice on Mars outside of the polar caps. If
you want to search for a habitable zone in the arctic permafrost, then this is the place to
go," said Peter Smith, principal investigator for the mission, at the University of Arizona,
Tucson.

Phoenix will dig to an ice-rich layer expected to lie within arm's reach of the surface. It
will analyze the water and soil for evidence about climate cycles and investigate whether
the environment there has been favorable for microbial life.

"We have never before had so much information about a Mars site prior to landing," said
Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis. Arvidson is chairman of the Phoenix
landing-site working group and has worked on Mars landings since the first successful
Viking landers in 1976.

"The environmental risks at landing -- rocks and slopes -- represent the most significant
threat to a successful mission. There's always a chance that we'll roll snake eyes, but we
have identified an area that is very flat and relatively free of large boulders," said JPL's
David Spencer, Phoenix deputy project manager and co-chair of the landing site working
group.

Today's trajectory adjustment began by pivoting Phoenix 145 degrees to orient and then
fire spacecraft thrusters for about 35 seconds, then pivoting Phoenix back to point its main
antenna toward Earth. The mission has three more planned opportunities for maneuvers
before May 25 to further refine the trajectory for a safe landing at the desired location.

In the final seven minutes of its flight on May 25, Phoenix must perform a challenging
series of actions to safely decelerate from nearly 21,000 kilometers per hour (13,000 mph).
The spacecraft will release a parachute and then use pulse thrusters at approximately 914
meters (3,000 feet) from the surface to slow to about 8 kilometers per hour (5 mph) and
land on three legs.

"Landing on Mars is extremely challenging. In fact, not since the 1970s have we had a
successful powered landing on this unforgiving planet. There's no guarantee of success, but
we are doing everything we can to mitigate the risks," said Doug McCuistion, director of
NASA's Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

For more information about Phoenix, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu .

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, with
project management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver.
International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency; the University of
Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; the Max
Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

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Spitzer Sees Shining Stellar Sphere

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.b.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

IMAGE ADVISORY: 2008-057 April 10, 2008

Spitzer Sees Shining Stellar Sphere

Millions of clustered stars glisten like an iridescent opal in a new image from NASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope.

Called Omega Centauri, this sparkling orb of stars is like a miniature galaxy. It is the
biggest and brightest of the more than 150 similar objects, called globular clusters, that
orbit around the outside of our Milky Way galaxy. Stargazers at southern latitudes can spot
the stellar gem with the naked eye in the constellation Centaurus.

Spitzer's new infrared view, which has been combined with visible-light data, can be seen
at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/20080410.html . While the
visible-light observations highlight the cluster's millions of jam-packed stars, Spitzer's
infrared eyes reveal the dustier, more evolved stars tossed throughout the region.

"Now we can see which stars form dust and can begin to understand how the dust forms
and where it goes once it is expelled from a star," said Martha Boyer of the University of
Minnesota, Twin Cities. Boyer is lead author of a paper about Omega Centauri appearing
in the April issue of the Astronomical Journal. "Surprisingly, Spitzer revealed fewer of
these dusty stars than expected."

Globular clusters are some of the oldest objects in our universe. Their stars are more than
12 billion years old, and, in most cases, formed all at once when the universe was just a
toddler. Omega Centauri is unusual in that its stars are of different ages and possess
varying levels of metals, or elements heavier than boron. Astronomers say this points to a
different origin for Omega Centauri than other globular clusters: they think it might be the
core of a dwarf galaxy that was ripped apart and absorbed by our Milky Way long ago.

In the new picture of Omega Centauri, the red- and yellow-colored dots represent the stars
revealed by Spitzer. These are the more evolved, larger, dustier stars, called red giants. The
stars colored blue are less evolved, like our own sun, and were captured by both Spitzer's
infrared eyes and in visible light by the National Science Foundation's Blanco 4-meter
telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Some of the red spots in
the picture are distant galaxies beyond our own.

"As stars age and mature into red giants, they form dust grains, which play a vital role in
the evolution of the universe and the formation of rocky planets," said Jacco van Loon, the
study's principal investigator at Keele University in England. "Spitzer can see this dust,
and it was able to resolve individual red giants even in the densest central parts of the
cluster."

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Gemini Observatory on Cerro Pachon in Chile
recently found evidence that Omega Centauri is home to a medium-sized black hole
(http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/14/ ).

Other authors of the paper include Iain McDonald and Nye Evans of Keele University;
Robert Gehrz and Charles Woodward of the University of Minnesota; and Andrea Dupree
of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are
conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in
Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. Spitzer's infrared array camera, which took the
Omega Centauri picture, was built by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
Md. The instrument's principal investigator is Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-Smithsonian
Center for Astrophysics.

Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory is part of the National Optical Astronomy
Observatory, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in
Astronomy under contract with the National Science Foundation.

For more information about Spitzer, visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and

http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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JPL Wins Award From U.S. Small Business Administration

Rhea R. Borja 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Rhea.R.Borja@jpl.nasa.gov

News Release: 2008-056 April 9, 2008

JPL Wins Award From U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration has named NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., as the winner of its 2008 Dwight D. Eisenhower Award for Excellence in the
research and development category. The award recognizes large prime contractors who excel in
using small businesses as suppliers and subcontractors.

This is the third time JPL has received this prestigious award, which is an unprecedented honor:
Only two percent of Eisenhower Award winners have earned it at least twice. The Lab also
received the award in 1996 and 2003.

The Small Business Administration evaluated JPL on the effectiveness of its supplier-diversity
program and management's commitment to small-business utilization. JPL has led an aggressive
supplier-diversity program to give small businesses the maximum opportunity to compete for
contracts. The JPL program helps small businesses owned by veterans, women and minorities. It
is managed by JPL's Business Opportunities Office, which aims to increase the number of
procurements and dollars awarded to such small businesses each year.

JPL Acquisition Division Manager Karl Bird will accept the award on behalf of JPL at the Small
Business Administration's National Small Business Week celebration in Washington, D.C., April
21 through 25. Since 1963, every president has declared National Small Business Week to
formally recognize the important role of America's small business community. During the
weeklong celebration, JPL representatives and other award winners will interact with top agency
officials, congressional representatives and national business leaders.

For more information on the JPL Business Opportunities Office and its Supplier-Diversity
Program, visit: http://acquisition.jpl.nasa.gov/boo .

For more information on the Eisenhower Award and National Small Business Week 2008, visit:

http://www.sba.gov/sbw .

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NASA Spacecraft Images Mars Moon in Color and in 3D

Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

Lori Stiles 520-626-4402
University of Arizona, Tucson
lstiles@u.arizona.edu

Image Advisory: 2008-055 April 9, 2008

NASA Spacecraft Images Mars Moon in Color and in 3D

PASADENA, Calif. – A new stereo view of Phobos, the larger and inner of Mars' two tiny
moons, has been captured by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter took two images of Phobos 10 minutes apart on March 23. Scientists combined the
images for a stereo view.

"Phobos is of great interest because it may be rich in water ice and carbon-rich materials," said
Alfred McEwen, HiRISE principal investigator at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the
University of Arizona, Tucson.

Previous spacecraft, notably Mars Global Surveyor, have taken higher-resolution pictures of
Phobos because they flew closer to the moon, said Nathan Bridges, HiRISE team member at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"But the HiRISE images are higher quality, making the new data some of the best ever for
Phobos," said Bridges. "The new images will help constrain the origin and evolution of this
moon."

By combining information from the camera's blue-green, red and near-infrared color filters,
scientists confirmed that material around the rim of Phobos' largest surface feature, Stickney
crater, appears bluer than the rest of Phobos. The impact that excavated the 9-kilometer (about
5.5 mile) in diameter Stickney crater is thought to have almost shattered the moon.

"Based on analogy with material on our own moon, the bluer color could mean that the material
is fresher, or hasn't been exposed to space as long as the rest of Phobos' surface has," Bridges
said.
The new view shows landslides along the walls of Stickney and other large craters: Phobos'
striking surface grooves and crater chains; and craters hidden on the moon's dark side
illuminated by "Marsshine."

"Marsshine" is sunlight reflected by Mars onto the moon. The phenomenon is similar to
"Earthshine," where Earth reflects sunlight that illuminates the dark side of our moon. Like
Earth's moon, Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos are "tidally locked" on their planet, that is, they
always present the same side to the planet they orbit.

These images are among several new HiRISE images being released today at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/multimedia/20080409.html . The images include an
anaglyph, or 3D view of Phobos that can be viewed with red-blue glasses.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flies at about 4,800 kilometers per hour (7,800 mph) between
250 to 316 kilometers (155 and 196 miles) above the surface of Mars.

Phobos was 6,800 kilometers (4,200 miles) away when the HiRISE camera took the first
photograph. At that distance, the camera was able to resolve the surface at a scale of 6.8 meters
(about 22 feet) per pixel, and see features as small as 20 meters (65 feet) across.

Phobos was 5,800 kilometers (3,600 miles) away when the HiRISE camera took the second
picture minutes later. At that distance, the camera was able to resolve features about 15 meters
(50 feet) across.

Phobos, only about 22 kilometers (13.5 miles) in diameter, has less than one-thousandth the
gravity of Earth. That's not enough gravity to pull the moon into a sphere, so it's oblong. Mars'
second moon, Deimos, is even smaller, at about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) across. The very dark,
diminutive moons may be captured asteroids from the outer, carbon-rich, Mars-Jupiter asteroid
belt.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars,
observed both Martian moons last year. By combining the data with HiRISE data on Phobos,
scientists can map minerals and soil types on the moons.

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., is the prime
contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The University of Arizona operates the High
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: March 31 - April 4, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
March 31 - April 4, 2008

o Old Dunes (Released 31 March 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080331a

o More Ridges (Released 01 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080401a

o Noachis Dunes (Released 02 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080402a

o Crater Delta (Released 03 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080403a

o Landslide (Released 04 April 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080404a

All of the THEMIS images are archived here:

http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission
Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University,
Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing.
The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State
University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor
for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission
operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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MRO HiRISE Images - April 2, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
April 2, 2008

o Exposure of Layers and Minerals in Candor Chasma

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007166_1740

o Crater Cluster in Chryse Planitia

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007059_1975

o Crater East of Mojave Crater

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_006703_1875

o Bright Slope Streaks on Dark Slopes in Bahram Vallis

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_007653_2010

All of the HiRISE images are archived here:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/

Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at

http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA
Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by t
he University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo.,
built the HiRISE instrument.

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Educators Needed to Assist with NASA INSPIRE

Educators Needed to Assist with NASA INSPIRE

Colleagues,

NASA has a summer internship program at each field center that brings in high school students for an eight week work experience. Students between their junior and senior years (typically 17 years of age) are provided room and board during the internship. NASA, through our contract partner Oklahoma State University, is looking for chaperones to supervise the students during their out-of-work time. If you are interested, please visit the link below. US citizenship is required.

The program is INSPIRE: Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research and Education Experience.

https://opportunities.nasa.okstate.edu/index.cfm?liftoff=applications.PositionDetails&JobPostingID=20

This position requires a professional educator to coordinate NASA INSPIRE activities within the NASA Center region during non-work day hours. The INSPIRE Counselor will be the designated point of contact for INSPIRE participants at the assigned NASA Center. The INSPIRE Counselor's travel expenses to/from their assigned NASA Field Center, lodging, meals, stipend, and Oklahoma State University (OSU) graduate credit (if desired) are paid by OSU. Training will be provided prior to assignment at a NASA Field Center and travel maybe required.

Each counselor will be the advisor to Tier 2B (see INSPIRE website: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/programs/INSPIRE_Project.html) participants during their 8-week on-NASA center experience away from home. They will be the point of contact for safety and health-related issues. During NASA Field Center work hours INSPIRE Counselors have the opportunity to earn graduate credit, if desired. One position is assigned to each of the ten (10) NASA Field Centers. Tier 2B event dates vary by NASA Field Center.

For details regarding employment and graduate credit opportunities, please see
https://opportunities.nasa.okstate.edu/

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Want to be a Cassini Scientist for a Day?

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Diya Schacko/Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382/393-5464
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
diya.s.chacko@jpl.nasa.gov / carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-053 April 3, 2008

Want to be a Cassini Scientist for a Day?

PASADENA, Calif. -- If you're a student who's ever wondered what it's like to be a NASA
scientist, look no further. NASA is giving 5th to 12th grade students the opportunity to study
Saturn and make decisions, just as scientists on the Cassini-Huygens mission do on a daily basis.

"It's a really fun way for kids to learn about Saturn and what the mission is doing," said Rachel
Zimmerman-Brachman, an education and public outreach specialist with NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Students have to do their own research to write their essay. That
way, they learn how to ask questions about the solar system and what we still need to
understand."

The Cassini spacecraft, launched just over a decade ago, has been sending back never-before-
seen views of Saturn, its rings and its moons for nearly four years. Part of the Cassini team's job
is to pick which image targets will yield the best science results.

Cassini's cameras will take images of three designated targets on June 10. The choices include
Saturn's moons Rhea and Enceladus, and a region of Saturn's rings that includes the tiny moon
Pan. Students must write a 500-word essay on why the image they chose would be the most
scientifically rich for Cassini's cameras to take. Essays will be judged by a panel of Cassini
scientists, mission planners, and by the JPL education and outreach team. Winners will be
invited to discuss their essays with JPL Cassini scientists via teleconference.

Entries are divided into three groups: grades five through six, seven through eight, and high
school. One winner will be chosen from each group. The deadline for entries is May 8, 2008, at
noon Pacific time (3 p.m. Eastern time). All participants with valid entries will receive a
certificate of participation.

For more information about the Cassini Scientist-for-a-Day contest, a complete description of the
designated targets, and entry rules, please visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/scientist/ .
More information on the Cassini-Huygens mission can be found at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov,

and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency
and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington,
D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

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