MRO HiRISE Images - July 30, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
July 30, 2008

o Layers Exposed Near the Mouth of Ladon Valles
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008931_1590

o Stair-Stepped Mounds in Meridiani Planum
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008930_1880

o Dunes and Polygons
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008839_2575

o The Head of Athabasca Valles
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008779_1905

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 Odyssey THEMIS Images: July 21-25, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
July 21-25, 2008

o THEMIS ART #94 (Released 21 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080721a

o THEMIS ART #95 (Released 22 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080722a

o THEMIS ART #96 (Released 23 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080723a

o THEMIS ART #97 (Released 24 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080724a

o THEMIS ART #98 (Released 25 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080725a

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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NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended

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

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

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

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

RELEASE: 2008-153 July 31, 2008

NASA Spacecraft Confirms Martian Water, Mission Extended

TUCSON, Ariz. -- Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a
soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies
vapors produced by the heating of samples.

"We have water," said William Boynton of the University of Arizona, lead scientist for the Thermal
and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, or TEGA. "We've seen evidence for this water ice before in observations
by the Mars Odyssey orbiter and in disappearing chunks observed by Phoenix last month, but this is
the first time Martian water has been touched and tasted."

With enticing results so far and the spacecraft in good shape, NASA also announced operational
funding for the mission will extend through Sept. 30. The original prime mission of three months
ends in late August. The mission extension adds five weeks to the 90 days of the prime mission.

"Phoenix is healthy and the projections for solar power look good, so we want to take full advantage
of having this resource in one of the most interesting locations on Mars," said Michael Meyer, chief
scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The soil sample came from a trench approximately 2 inches deep. When the robotic arm first reached
that depth, it hit a hard layer of frozen soil. Two attempts to deliver samples of

icy soil on days when fresh material was exposed were foiled when the samples became stuck inside
the scoop. Most of the material in Wednesday's sample had been exposed to the air for two days,
letting some of the water in the sample vaporize away and making the soil easier to handle.

"Mars is giving us some surprises," said Phoenix principal investigator Peter Smith of the University
of Arizona. "We're excited because surprises are where discoveries come from. One surprise is how
the soil is behaving. The ice-rich layers stick to the scoop when poised in the sun above the deck,
different from what we expected from all the Mars simulation testing we've done. That has presented
challenges for delivering samples, but we're finding ways to work with it and we're gathering lots of
information to help us understand this soil."

Since landing on May 25, Phoenix has been studying soil with a chemistry lab, TEGA, a microscope,
a conductivity probe and cameras. Besides confirming the 2002 finding from orbit of water ice near
the surface and deciphering the newly observed stickiness, the science team is trying to determine
whether the water ice ever thaws enough to be available for biology and if carbon-containing
chemicals and other raw materials for life are present.

The mission is examining the sky as well as the ground. A Canadian instrument is using a laser beam
to study dust and clouds overhead.

"It's a 30-watt light bulb giving us a laser show on Mars," said Victoria Hipkin of the Canadian Space
Agency.

A full-circle, color panorama of Phoenix's surroundings also has been completed by the spacecraft.

"The details and patterns we see in the ground show an ice-dominated terrain as far as the eye can
see," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, lead scientist for Phoenix's Surface Stereo
Imager camera. "They help us plan measurements we're making within reach of the robotic arm and
interpret those measurements on a wider scale."

The Phoenix mission is led by Smith at the University of Arizona with project management at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed
Martin in Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University
of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus in Denmark; the Max Planck
Institute in Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

For more about Phoenix, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix

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NASA Confirms Liquid Lake on Saturn Moon

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

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

Lori Stiles 520-360-0574
University of Arizona, Tucson
lstiles@u.arizona.edu

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-152 July 30, 2008

NASA Confirms Liquid Lake on Saturn Moon

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists have concluded that at least one of the large lakes observed
on Saturn's moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, and have positively identified the presence of
ethane. This makes Titan the only body in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its
surface.

Scientists made the discovery using data from an instrument aboard the Cassini spacecraft. The
instrument identified chemically different materials based on the way they absorb and reflect infrared
light. Before Cassini, scientists thought Titan would have global oceans of methane, ethane and other
light hydrocarbons. More than 40 close flybys of Titan by Cassini show no such global oceans exist,
but hundreds of dark, lake-like features are present. Until now, it was not known whether these
features were liquid or simply dark, solid material.

"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid,"
said Bob Brown of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Brown is the team leader of Cassini's visual
and mapping instrument. The results will be published in the July 31 issue of the journal Nature.

Ethane and several other simple hydrocarbons have been identified in Titan's atmosphere, which
consists of 95 percent nitrogen, with methane making up the other fiver percent. Ethane and other
hydrocarbons are products from atmospheric chemistry caused by the breakdown of methane by
sunlight.

Some of the hydrocarbons react further and form fine aerosol particles. All of these things in Titan's
atmosphere make detecting and identifying materials on the surface difficult, because these particles
form a ubiquitous hydrocarbon haze that hinders the view. Liquid ethane was identified using a
technique that removed the interference from the atmospheric hydrocarbons.

The visual and mapping instrument observed a lake, Ontario Lacus, in Titan's south polar region
during a close Cassini flyby in December 2007. The lake is roughly 20,000 square miles (7,800
square miles) in area, slightly larger than North America's Lake Ontario.

"Detection of liquid ethane confirms a long-held idea that lakes and seas filled with methane and
ethane exist on Titan," said Larry Soderblom, a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist with the U.S.
Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz. "The fact we could detect the ethane spectral signatures of the
lake even when it was so dimly illuminated, and at a slanted viewing path through Titan's
atmosphere, raises expectations for exciting future lake discoveries by our instrument."

The ethane is in a liquid solution with methane, other hydrocarbons and nitrogen. At Titan's surface
temperatures, approximately 300 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, these substances can exist as both
liquid and gas. Titan shows overwhelming evidence of evaporation, rain, and fluid-carved channels
draining into what, in this case, is a liquid hydrocarbon lake.

Earth has a hydrological cycle based on water and Titan has a cycle based on methane. Scientists
ruled out the presence of water ice, ammonia, ammonia hydrate and carbon dioxide in Ontario Lacus.
The observations also suggest the lake is evaporating. It is ringed by a dark beach, where the black
lake merges with the bright shoreline. Cassini also observed a shelf and beach being exposed as the
lake evaporates.

"During the next few years, the vast array of lakes and seas on Titan's north pole mapped with
Cassini's radar instrument will emerge from polar darkness into sunlight, giving the infrared
instrument rich opportunities to watch for seasonal changes of Titan's lakes," Soderblom said.

More information is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini, http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and
http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the
Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 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. The
Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona.

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Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 Begins Mapping Oceans

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

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-151 July 30, 2008

Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 Begins Mapping Oceans

PASADENA, Calif. – Less than a month after launch, the NASA-French space agency Ocean Surface
Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 oceanography satellite has produced its first complete maps of
global ocean surface topography, surface wave height and wind speed.

The new data will help scientists monitor changes in global sea level and the distribution of heat in the
ocean. This information is used to monitor climate change and ocean circulation, and to enable more
accurate weather, ocean and climate forecasts. The data reveal patterns of sea level anomalies, which
are used by scientists to calculate the speed and direction of ocean surface currents.

The new mission extends a 16-year continuous record of global sea level measurements begun in 1992
by the NASA/Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) Topex/Poseidon mission and continued by
the two agencies on Jason 1, launched in 2001. Data from Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 show that mean
sea level has been rising by about three millimeters (.12 inches) a year since 1993.

The new maps were generated from the first 10 days of data collected once the new satellite,
OSTM/Jason 2, reached its operational orbit of 1,336 kilometers (830) miles on July 4. The new
satellite and its predecessor, Jason 1, are now flying in formation in the same orbit approximately 55
seconds apart, making nearly simultaneous measurements that are allowing scientists to precisely
calibrate the new satellite's instruments. Comparisons of data from the two satellites on sea-level
anomalies, significant wave height and ocean wind speed all show very close correlation of all
measured parameters.

"These initial observations from OSTM/Jason 2 compare very closely to those of Jason 1," said Lee-
Lueng Fu, OSTM/Jason 2 project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "To
be able to collect such high-quality science data within a month of launch breaks previous records. It is
also a direct reflection of how mature the field of satellite altimetry has become and of the seamless
cooperation of our international team."

The satellite's first radar altimeter data were acquired just 48 hours after its launch on June 20 from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., on a Delta II rocket. The French space agency processed the first
test results, followed by more advanced data results a week after launch. The more advanced results
came after calculating the precise location of the satellite's preliminary orbits. The satellite, its
instruments and ground segment are all functioning properly. Once it has been fully calibrated and
validated, the satellite will begin providing oceanographic products to users around the world.

OSTM/Jason 2 is an international endeavor, with responsibilities for satellite development and launch
shared between NASA and CNES. CNES provided the OSTM/Jason 2 spacecraft, NASA provided the
launch, and NASA and CNES jointly provided the primary payload instruments. CNES and the U.S.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are responsible for satellite operations,
while JPL is managing the mission for NASA. Data processing is being carried out by CNES, the
European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and NOAA,
depending on the type of product.

Once on-orbit commissioning of OSTM/Jason 2 is completed, CNES will hand over mission
operations and control to NOAA, which will then join with EUMETSAT to generate, archive and
distribute data products to users worldwide.

For more information about OSTM/Jason 2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ostm .

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

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NASA's JPL, Ames Win 2007 NASA Software of Year Award

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

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

Rachel Prucey 650-604-0643
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
rachel.l.prucey@nasa.gov

Sonja Alexander 202-358-1761
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Sonja.r.alexander@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-141 July 22, 2008

NASA's JPL, Ames Win 2007 NASA Software of Year Award

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has selected the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., as
one of two winners of the agency's 2007 Software of the Year Award for software to help detect
planets outside our solar system.

JPL's software, called Adaptive Modified Gerchberg-Saxton Phase Retrieval, characterizes the
optical errors in a telescope system using innovative and robust algorithms. The software may be
integrated into a telescope's calibration control loops to correct those errors and markedly
improve optical resolution. JPL's software can be applied to other sciences and systems that use
light, such as laser communications and extrasolar planet detection.

The other award went to software engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field,
Calif., who developed the Data-Parallel Line Relaxation, or DPLR, which is used to analyze and
predict the extreme environments human and robotic spacecraft experience during super high-
speed entries into planetary atmospheres.

JPL's software is already used at the California Institute of Technology's Palomar Observatory,
in northern San Diego County. The software played a significant role in designing next-
generation telescopes such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in
2013.

A seven-person team from JPL is responsible for the Adaptive Modified Gerchberg-Saxton
Phase Retrieval Software: Scott Basinger, Siddarayappa Bikkannavar, David Cohen, Joseph
Green, Catherine Ohara, David Redding and Fang Shi.

Early work for the software was based on efforts to correct the vision of NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope. After initial images came back blurry, engineers worked for months to determine the
problem. Eventually, astronauts traveled to the telescope to install a corrective lens based on
telescope-imaging errors.

"Several years ago, it took teams of experts months to agree on a correct prescription for
telescope lens," said team member Siddarayappa Bikkannavar. "Our software can do all of that
in just a few minutes."

David Redding said he and his team have worked since the mid-1990s to develop the innovative
software, and they are gratified to receive recognition for it.

Ames Research Center's DPLR software simulates the intense heating, shear stresses and
pressures a spacecraft endures as it travels through atmospheres to land on Earth or other planets.
It is capable of creating a highly accurate, simulated entry environment that exceeds the
capability of any test facility on Earth, allowing engineers to design and apply thermal protection
materials suited to withstand such intense heating environments.

The DPLR team members include Michael J. Wright, James Brown, David Hash, Matt MacLean,
Ryan McDaniel, David Saunders, Chun Tang and Kerry Trumble.

The NASA Software of the Year Award was initiated in 1994. Since then, both JPL and Ames
have won or have been co-winner of the award seven times, including three out of the past four
years.

A NASA Software Advisory Panel reviews entries and recommends winners to NASA's
Inventions and Contributions Board for confirmation. Entries are nominated for developing
innovative technologies that significantly improve the agency's exploration of space and
maximize scientific discovery.

More information about NASA's Inventions and Contributions Board is at: http://icb.nasa.gov .

More information about JPL is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov. More information about NASA is at:
http://www.nasa.gov .

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New NASA 'Fire And Smoke' Web Page Shows Latest Fire Views, Research

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

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

INTERNET ADVISORY: 2008-140 July 22, 2008

New NASA 'Fire And Smoke' Web Page Shows Latest Fire Views, Research

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA satellites, aircraft and research know-how, including resources and
expertise from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., comprise a wealth of cutting-
edge tools to help firefighters battle wildfires. These tools also have helped scientists understand the
impact of fires and smoke on Earth's climate and ecosystems. Now, a new NASA Web site brings to
the public and journalists the latest information about this ongoing effort.

The NASA "Fire and Smoke" Web site debuting Tuesday, July 22, includes regular updates of
NASA images of fires and their associated smoke plumes in the United States and around the world.
The site also features articles on the latest research results and multimedia resources from across
NASA.

The site is updated regularly with new images from NASA's suite of Earth-observing satellites and
airborne observatories, including the unmanned Ikhana aircraft that recently pinpointed wildfire
hotspots across California. NASA's investment in these observational resources, and the research
and development to transform them into practical tools for operational agencies, supports ongoing
nationwide efforts to fight wildfires.

The Web site is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/fires .

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Spitzer Reveals 'No Organics' Zone Around Pinwheel Galaxy

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: 2008-138 July 21, 2008

Spitzer Reveals 'No Organics' Zone Around Pinwheel Galaxy

The Pinwheel galaxy is gussied up in infrared light in a new picture from NASA's Spitzer
Space Telescope.

The fluffy-looking galaxy, officially named Messier 101, is dominated by a mishmash of
spiral arms. In Spitzer's new view, in which infrared light is color coded, the galaxy
sports a swirling blue center and a unique, coral-red outer ring.

A new paper appearing July 20 in the Astrophysical Journal explains why this outer ring
stands out. According to the authors, the red color highlights a zone where organic
molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are present throughout most
of the galaxy, suddenly disappear.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are dusty, carbon-containing molecules found in star
nurseries, and on Earth in barbeque pits, exhaust pipes and anywhere combustion
reactions take place. Scientists believe this space dust has the potential to be converted
into the stuff of life.

"If you were going look for life in Messier 101, you would not want to look at its edges,"
said Karl Gordon of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Md. "The
organics can't survive in these regions, most likely because of high amounts of harsh
radiation." To view Spitzer's Pinwheel, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/20080721a.html

The Pinwheel galaxy is located about 27 million light-years away in the constellation
Ursa Major. It has one of the highest known gradients of metals (elements heavier than
helium) of all nearby galaxies in our universe. In other words, its concentrations of metals
are highest at its center, and decline rapidly with distance from the center. This is because
stars, which produce metals, are squeezed more tightly into the galaxy's central quarters.

Gordon and his team used Spitzer to learn about the galaxy's gradient of polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons. The astronomers found that, like the metals, the polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons decrease in concentration toward the outer portion of the galaxy.
But, unlike the metals, these organic molecules quickly drop off and are no longer
detected at the very outer rim.

"There's a threshold at the rim of this galaxy, where the organic material is getting
destroyed," said Gordon.

The findings also provide a better understanding of the conditions under which the very
first stars and galaxies arose. In the early universe, there were not a lot of metals or
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons around. The outskirt of the Pinwheel galaxy therefore
serves as a close-up example of what the environment might look like in a distant galaxy.

In this image, infrared light with a wavelength of 3.6 microns is colored blue; 8-micron
light is green; and 24-micron light is red. All three of Spitzer instruments were used in
the study: the infrared array camera, the multiband imaging photometer and the infrared
spectrograph.

Other authors of the paper include Charles Engelbracht, George Rieke, Karl A. Misselt,
J.D. Smith and Robert Kennicutt, Jr. of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Smith is also
associated with the University of Toledo, Ohio, and Kennicutt is also associated with the
University of Cambridge, England.

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 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. Spitzer's infrared spectrograph was built by Cornell University, Ithaca,
N.Y. Its development was led by Jim Houck of Cornell. The multiband imaging
photometer for Spitzer was built by Ball Aerospace Corporation, Boulder, Colo., and the
University of Arizona, Tucson. Its principal investigator is George Rieke of the
University of Arizona.

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

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: July 14-18, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
July 14-18, 2008

o THEMIS ART #89 (Released 14 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080714a

o THEMIS ART #90 (Released 15 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080715a

o THEMIS ART #91 (Released 16 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080716a

o THEMIS ART #92 (Released 17 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080717a

o THEMIS ART #93 (Released 18 July 2008)
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080718a

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 - July 16, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
July 16, 2008

o Mystery Mounds
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008778_1685

o Layering and Inverted Streams
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008774_1755

o Cratered Cones in Utopia Planitia u
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008767_2055

o Layered Rocks in Orson Welles Crater
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008391_1790

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's Deep Impact Films Earth as an Alien World

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

Nancy Neal-Jones / Bill Steigerwald 301-286 0039 / 5017
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Nancy.N.Jones@nasa.gov / william.a.steigerwald@nasa.gov

Lee Tune 301-405-4679
University of Maryland, College Park
ltune@umd.edu

David L. Chandler 617-253-2704
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
dlc1@MIT.EDU

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-137 July 17, 2008

NASA's Deep Impact Films Earth as an Alien World

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon
transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 50
million kilometers (31 million miles) away. Scientists are using the video to develop
techniques to study alien worlds.

"Making a video of Earth from so far away helps the search for other life-bearing planets
in the Universe by giving insights into how a distant, Earth-like alien world would appear
to us," said University of Maryland astronomer Michael A'Hearn, principal investigator
for the Deep Impact extended mission, called Epoxi.

Deep Impact made history when the mission team directed an impactor from the
spacecraft into comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. NASA recently extended the mission,
redirecting the spacecraft for a flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010.

Epoxi is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: a search
for alien (extrasolar) planets during the cruise to Hartley 2, called Extrasolar Planet
Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the
Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI).

During a full Earth rotation, images obtained by Deep Impact at a 15-minute cadence
have been combined to make a color video. During the video, the moon enters the frame
(because of its orbital motion) and transits Earth, then leaves the frame. Other spacecraft
have imaged Earth and the moon from space, but Deep Impact is the first to show a
transit of Earth with enough detail to see large craters on the moon and oceans and
continents on Earth.

"To image Earth in a similar fashion, an alien civilization would need technology far
beyond what Earthlings can even dream of building," said Sara Seager, a planetary
theorist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., and a co-
investigator on Epoxi. "Nevertheless, planet-characterizing space telescopes under study
by NASA would be able to observe an Earth twin as a single point of light -- a point
whose total brightness changes with time as different land masses and oceans rotate in
and out of view. The video will help us connect a varying point of planetary light with
underlying oceans, continents, and clouds -- and finding oceans on extrasolar planets
means identifying potentially habitable worlds." said Seager.

"Our video shows some specific features that are important for observations of Earth-like
planets orbiting other stars," said Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Md. Deming is deputy principal investigator for Epoxi, and leads the
EPOCh observations. "A 'sun glint' can be seen in the movie, caused by light reflected
from Earth's oceans, and similar glints to be observed from extrasolar planets could
indicate alien oceans. Also, we used infrared light instead of the normal red light to make
the color composite images, and that makes the land masses much more visible." That
happens because plants reflect more strongly in the near-infrared, Deming explained.
Hence the video illustrates the potential for detecting vegetated land masses on extrasolar
planets by looking for variations in the intensity of their near-infrared light as the planet
rotates.

The University of Maryland is the Principal Investigator institution,
leading the overall Epoxi mission, including the flyby of comet
Hartley 2. NASA Goddard leads the extrasolar planet observations.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages Epoxi for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The spacecraft was
built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

To see the video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/Epoxi_transit.html

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Three Red Spots Mix it Up on Jupiter

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

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

Ray Villard 410-338-4514
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
villard@stsci.edu

Amy Simon-Miller 301-286-6738
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
amy.simon@nasa.gov

IMAGE ADVISORY: 2008-136 July 17, 2008

Three Red Spots Mix it Up on Jupiter

A new sequence of Hubble Space Telescope images offers an unprecedented view of a
planetary game of Pac-Man among three red spots clustered together in Jupiter's
atmosphere. The images were taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, developed and
built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The time series shows the passage of the "Red Spot Jr." in a band of clouds below (south) of the
Great Red Spot. "Red Spot Jr." first appeared on Jupiter in early 2006 when a
previously white storm turned red. This is the second time, since turning red, it has skirted
past its big brother apparently unscathed.

But this is not the fate of "baby red spot," which is in the same latitudinal band as the Great Red
Spot. This new red spot first appeared earlier this year. The baby red spot gets ever closer to the
Great Red Spot in this picture sequence until it is caught up in its anticyclonic spin. In the
final image, the baby spot is deformed and pale in color and has been spun to the right (east) of
the Great Red Spot. Amateur astronomers' observations confirm that this pale spot is the
migrating baby spot.

The prediction is that the baby spot will now get pulled back into the Great Red Spot
"Cuisinart" and disappear for good. This is one possible mechanism that has powered and
sustained the Great Red Spot for at least 150 years.

These three natural-color Jupiter images were made from data acquired on May 15, June
28 and July 8, 2008, by JPL's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. Each one covers 58
degrees of Jovian "latitude" and 70 degrees of "longitude" (centered on 5 degrees South latitude
and 110, 121 and 121 degrees West longitude, respectively).

For images and more information, visit http://hubblesite.org/news/2008/27 .

For more information about JPL's Wide Field and Planetary Cameras, visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/missiondetails.cfm?mission=WFPC .

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and
the European Space Agency (ESA) and is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center (GSFC) in Greenbelt, Md. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts
Hubble science operations. The institute is operated for NASA by the Association of
Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington, D.C.

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Ocean Surface a Boon for Extreme Event Forecasts, Warnings

Feature
July 16, 2008

Ocean Surface a Boon for Extreme Event Forecasts, Warnings

For humans in the path of destructive hurricanes and tsunamis, an accurate warning of the
pending event is critical for damage control and survival. Such warnings, however,
require a solid base of scientific observations, and a new satellite is ready for the job.

The Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason 2 adds to the number of eyes in
the sky measuring sea surface and wave heights across Earth's oceans. The increased
coverage will help researchers improve current models for practical use in predicting
hurricane intensity, while providing valuable data that can be used to improve tsunami
warning models.

"When it comes to predicting hurricane intensity, the curve in the last 40 years has been
somewhat flat, with little advance in how to reduce error in predicted intensity," said
Gustavo Goni, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in
Miami. Maps of sea surface height created from satellites, however, could help change the
curve.

Satellites that measure sea surface height have been running operationally nonstop since
November 1992. But more than one is needed to fly at the same time in order to identify all
the features that could be responsible for intensification of tropical cyclones all over Earth.
The OSTM/Jason 2 mission will help make the additional coverage possible.

NASA, university and NOAA investigators, including Goni, work to transform sea surface
height information obtained from satellites, such as OSTM/Jason 2, into maps of ocean
heat content. Forecasters can use the maps to develop models to predict how hurricanes
will strengthen.

Determining heat content from sea surface height is possible because warm water is less
dense and hence sits higher than cooler water. In some regions, such as inside and outside
the Gulf Stream current, the temperature differences result in more than a one-meter (three-
foot) difference in sea surface height. Goni and colleagues use this established concept to
estimate from sea level variations how much heat is stored in the upper ocean in areas
where hurricanes typically develop and intensify.

While sea surface height may not necessarily be the most significant parameter for
hurricane intensity forecasts, researchers now know that if sea surface height is accounted
for in current forecast models, errors in forecasts for the most intense storms are reduced.
For weak storms, the reduction in error is not very significant. However, for storms in the
strongest category 5 range, the heat content in the upper ocean derived from sea surface
height becomes increasingly important. "This is a good thing, because these are the storms
that produce the most damage," Goni said.

"OSTM/Jason 2 will help us to keep the necessary coverage that we need to identify ocean
features that can be linked to tropical cyclone intensification, because with only one
satellite we may miss some of them," Goni said.

Upper ocean heat content derived from sea surface height is now used in operational and
experimental forecast models in all seven ocean basins where tropical cyclones exist.

In December 2004, two satellites happened to be in the right place at the right time,
capturing the first space-based look at a major tsunami in the open ocean. Within two hours
of a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Indian Ocean southwest of Sumatra, the Jason 1 and
Topex/Poseidon satellites fortuitously passed over the path of the resulting tsunami as it
traveled across the ocean. It measured the leading wave, traveling hundreds of miles per
hour in the open ocean, at about 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) tall.

Wave height measurements like those of the Indian Ocean tsunami do not provide an early
warning because the information is not relayed to ground stations in real time. That's the
job of early warning systems operated by NOAA and other global organizations that
currently employ a network of open-ocean buoys and coastal tide gauges. Sea surface
height measurements of tsunamis can, however, help scientists test and improve ground-
based models used for early warning. One such system developed at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., and undergoing tests at NOAA's Pacific
Tsunami Warning Center, Ewa Beach, Hawaii, could become operational within about
three years.

Most tsunamis are caused by undersea earthquakes. Using the JPL-developed system, when
seismometers first identify and locate a large earthquake, scientists can use GPS
measurements to search around the earthquake's source to see if land has shifted,
potentially spurring a tsunami. Scientists can then immediately compile the earthquake's
size, location, and land movement into a computer program that generates a model tsunami
to determine the risk of a dangerous wave. After the wave passes, scientists can search
through wave height data from satellites and verify what the model predicted.

"Satellite data play the crucial role of verifying tsunami models by testing real tsunami
events," said JPL research scientist Tony Song. "If an earthquake generates a tsunami,
does the satellite data match observations on the ground and model predictions?"

"One of the unique pieces of satellite observations is the large-scale perspective," said JPL
research scientist Philip Callahan. Tsunamis can have waves more than 161 kilometers
(100 miles) long. Such a wave would likely go unnoticed by an observer in a boat on the
ocean's surface. But satellite altimeters like OSTM/Jason 2 can see this very long wave and
measure its height to an accuracy of about 2.5 centimeters (one inch).

Scientists' ability to test tsunami warning models will be aided by OSTM/Jason 2. With the
Topex/Poseidon mission now ended, the currently orbiting Jason 1 has now been joined by
and will eventually be replaced by OSTM/Jason 2. This will help ensure that future
tsunamis will also be observed by satellites as well as by buoys and tide gauges.

"The biggest value in satellite measurements of sea surface height is not in direct warning
capability, but in improving models so when an earthquake is detected, you can make
reliable predictions and reduce damage to property and people," Callahan said.

For more information on OSTM/Jason 2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ostm .

For more information on JPL's climate change research programs, visit:

http://climate.jpl.nasa.gov .

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NASA Spacecraft Shows Diverse, Wet Environments on Ancient Mars

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-135 July 16, 2008

NASA Spacecraft Shows Diverse, Wet Environments on Ancient Mars

WASHINGTON -- Two studies based on data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have
revealed that the Red Planet once hosted vast lakes, flowing rivers and a variety of other wet
environments that had the potential to support life.

One study, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, shows that vast regions of the ancient highlands
of Mars, which cover about half the planet, contain clay minerals, which can form only in the
presence of water. Volcanic lavas buried the clay-rich regions during subsequent, drier periods of the
planet's history, but impact craters later exposed them at thousands of locations across Mars. The
data for the study derives from images taken by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer
for Mars, or CRISM, and other instruments on the orbiter.

"The big surprise from these new results is how pervasive and long-lasting Mars' water was, and
how diverse the wet environments were," said Scott Murchie, CRISM principal investigator at the
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

The clay-like minerals, called phyllosilicates, preserve a record of the interaction of water with rocks
dating back to what is called the Noachian period of Mars' history, approximately 4.6 billion to 3.8
billion years ago. This period corresponds to the earliest years of the solar system, when Earth, the
moon and Mars sustained a cosmic bombardment by comets and asteroids. Rocks of this age have
largely been destroyed on Earth by plate tectonics. They are preserved on the moon, but were never
exposed to liquid water. The phyllosilicate-containing rocks on Mars preserve a unique record of
liquid water environments possibly suitable for life in the early solar system.

"The minerals present in Mars' ancient crust show a variety of wet environments," said John
Mustard, a member of the CRISM team from Brown University, and lead author of the Nature study.
"In most locations the rocks are lightly altered by liquid water, but in a few locations they have been
so altered that a great deal of water must have flushed though the rocks and soil. This is really
exciting because we're finding dozens of sites where future missions can land to understand if Mars
was ever habitable and if so, to look for signs of past life."

Another study, published in the June 2 issue of Nature Geosciences, finds that the wet conditions on
Mars persisted for a long time. Thousands to millions of years after the clays formed, a system of
river channels eroded them out of the highlands and concentrated them in a delta where the river
emptied into a crater lake slightly larger than California's Lake Tahoe, approximately 40 kilometers
(25 miles) in diameter.

"The distribution of clays inside the ancient lakebed shows that standing water must have persisted
for thousands of years," says Bethany Ehlmann, another member of the CRISM team from Brown.
Ehlmann is lead author of the study of an ancient lake within a northern-Mars impact basin called
Jezero Crater. "Clays are wonderful at trapping and preserving organic matter, so if life ever existed
in this region, there's a chance of its chemistry being preserved in the delta."

CRISM's high spatial and spectral resolutions are better than any previous spectrometer sent to Mars
and reveal variations in the types and composition of the phyllosilicate minerals. By combining data
from CRISM and the orbiter's Context Imager and High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment,
the team identified three principal classes of water-related minerals dating to the early Noachian
period. The classes are aluminum-phyllosilicates, hydrated silica or opal, and the more common and
widespread iron/magnesium-phyllosilicates. The variations in the minerals suggest that different
processes, or different types of watery environments, created them.

"Our whole team is turning our findings into a list of sites where future missions could land to look
for organic chemistry and perhaps determine whether life ever existed on Mars," said Murchie.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Applied Physics Laboratory
operates the CRISM instrument in coordination with an international team of researchers from
universities, government and the private sector.

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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Rasps Frozen Layer, Collects Sample

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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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
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-134 July 16, 2008

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Rasps Frozen Layer, Collects Sample

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A powered rasp on the back of the robotic arm scoop of NASA's Phoenix Mars
Lander successfully drilled into the frozen soil and loosened material that was collected in the
lander's scoop.

Images and data sent from Phoenix early Wednesday indicated the shaved material in the scoop had
changed slightly over time during the hours after it was collected.

The motorized rasp -- located on the back of the lander's robotic arm scoop -- made two distinct
holes in a trench informally named "Snow White." The material loosened by the rasp was collected
in the scoop and documented by the Robotic Arm Camera. The activity was a test of the rasping
method of gathering an icy sample, in preparation for using that method in coming days to collect a
sample for analysis in an oven of Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer.

"This was a trial that went really well," said Richard Morris, a Phoenix science team member from
NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. "While the putative ice sublimed out of the shavings over
several hours, this shows us there will be a good chance ice will remain in a sample for delivery" to
Phoenix's laboratory ovens.

Phoenix on Wednesday will be commanded to continue scraping and enlarging the "Snow White"
trench and to conduct another series of rasp tests. The lander's cameras will again be used to
monitor the sample in the scoop after its collection.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona with project management at
JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come
from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel; the universities of Copenhagen and
Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For
more about Phoenix, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

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NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander to Begin Rasping Frozen Layer

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

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

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

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-133 July 15, 2008

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander to Begin Rasping Frozen Layer

TUCSON, Ariz. -- A powered rasp on the back of the robotic arm scoop of NASA's
Phoenix Mars Lander is being tested for the first time on Mars in gathering sample
shavings of ice.

The lander has used its arm in recent days to clear away loose soil from a subsurface
layer of hard-frozen material and create a large enough area to use the motorized rasp in a
trench informally named "Snow White."

The Phoenix team prepared commands early Tuesday for beginning a series of tests with
the rasp later in the day. Engineers and scientists designed the tests to lead up to, in
coming days, delivering a sample of icy soil into one of the lander's laboratory ovens.

"While Phoenix was in development, we added the rasp to the robotic arm design
specifically to grind into very hard surface ice," said Barry Goldstein, Phoenix project
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This is the exactly the
situation we find we are facing on Mars, so we believe we have the right tool for the job.
Honeybee Robotics in New York City did a heroic job of designing and delivering the
rasp on a very short schedule."

The rasp bit extends at a shallow angle out of an opening on the back of the scoop at the
end of the 2.35-meter-long (7.7-foot-long) robotic arm. To use it, the back surface of the
scoop is placed on the ground, and a motor rotates the rasp. The angle of the rasp is
increased from nearly horizontal to slightly steeper while it is rotating, so the tool kicks
shavings sideways onto a collection surface just inside the opening. After the rasp stops, a
series of moves by the scoop then shifts the collected shavings from the back of the
scoop, past baffles, to the front of the scoop. The baffles serve to keep material from
falling out of the rasp opening when the scoop is used as a front loader.

The commands prepared for Phoenix's activities Tuesday called for rasping into the hard
material at the bottom of the Snow White trench at two points about one centimeter (0.4
inch) apart. The lander's Surface Stereo Imager and robotic arm camera will be used to
check the process at several steps and to monitor any resulting sample in the scoop for
several hours after it is collected.

Collecting an icy sample for an oven of Phoenix's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer
(TEGA) may involve gathering shavings collected at the rasp opening and scooping up
additional shavings produced by the rasp. The Phoenix team has been testing this
combination on simulated Martian ice with a near-replica model of Phoenix in a test
facility at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona with project
management at JPL and development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver.
International contributions come from the Canadian Space Agency; the University of
Neuchatel; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max Planck Institute,
Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

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Brightest Star in the Galaxy Has New Competition

Media RELATIONS OFFICE
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-132 July 15, 2008

Brightest Star in the Galaxy Has New Competition

A contender for the title of brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy has been unearthed in
the dusty metropolis of the galaxy's center.

Nicknamed the "Peony nebula star," the bright stellar bulb was revealed by NASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope and other ground-based telescopes. It blazes with the light of an
estimated 3.2 million suns.

The reigning "brightest star" champion is Eta Carina, with a whopping solar wattage of
4.7 million suns. But according to astronomers, it's hard to pin down an exact brightness,
or luminosity, for these scorching stars, so they could potentially shine with a similar
amount of light.

"The Peony nebula star is a fascinating creature. It appears to be the second-brightest star
that we now know of in the galaxy, and it's located deep into the galaxy's center," said
Lidia Oskinova of Potsdam University in Germany. "There are probably other stars just
as bright if not brighter in our galaxy that remain hidden from view." Oskinova is
principal investigator for the research and second author of a paper appearing in a future
issue of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Scientists already knew about the Peony nebula star, but because of its sheltered location
in the dusty central hub of our galaxy, its extreme luminosity was not revealed until now.
Spitzer's dust-piercing infrared eyes can see straight into the heart of our galaxy, into
regions impenetrable by visible light. Likewise, infrared data from the European
Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope in Chile were integral in calculating
the Peony nebula star's luminosity.

"Infrared astronomy opens extraordinary views into the environment of the central region
of our galaxy," said Oskinova.

The brightest stars in the universe are also the biggest. Astronomers estimate the Peony
nebula star kicked off its life with a hefty mass of roughly 150 to 200 times that of our
sun. Stars this massive are rare and puzzle astronomers because they push the limits
required for stars to form. Theory predicts that if a star starts out too massive, it can't hold
itself together and must break into a double or multiple stars instead.

Not only is the Peony nebula star hefty, it also has a wide girth. It is a type of giant blue
star called a Wolf-Rayet star, with a diameter roughly 100 times that of our sun. That
means this star, if placed where our sun is, would extend out to about the orbit of
Mercury.

With so much mass, the star barely keeps itself together. It sheds an enormous amount of
stellar matter in the form of strong winds over its relatively short lifetime of a few million
years. This matter is pushed so hard by strong radiation from the star that the winds speed
up to about 1.6 million kilometers per hour (one million miles per hour) in only a few
hours.

Ultimately, the Peony nebula star will blow up in a fantastic explosion of cosmic
proportions called a supernova. In fact, Oskinova and her colleagues say that the star is
ripe for exploding soon, which in astronomical terms mean anytime from now to millions
of years from now.

"When this star blows up, it will evaporate any planets orbiting stars in the vicinity," said
Oskinova. "Farther out from the star, the explosion could actually trigger the birth of new
stars."

In addition to the star itself, the astronomers noted a cloud of dust and gas, called a
nebula, surrounding the star. The team nicknamed this cloud the Peony nebula because it
resembles the ornate flower.

"The nebula was probably created from the spray of dust leaking off the massive Peony
nebula star," said Andreas Barniske of Potsdam University, lead author of the study.

Wolf-Rainer Hamann, also of Potsdam University, is another co-author of the paper and
the principal investigator of a Spitzer program enabling this research.

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
spectrograph, which was used to determine the luminosity of the Peony nebula star, was
built by Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Its development was led by Jim Houck of
Cornell. For more information about Spitzer, visit

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

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: July 7-11, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
July 7-11, 2008

o Dune (Released 07 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080707a

o THEMIS ART #85 (Released 08 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080708a

o THEMIS ART #86 (Released 09 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080709a

o THEMIS ART #87 (Released 10 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080710a

o THEMIS ART #88 (Released 11 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080711a

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 - July 9, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
July 9, 2008

o Phoenix Descent with Color and the Heat Shield in Free-Fall

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/phoenix-descent-color.php

o Geologic Contacts in Juventae Chasma

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008708_1780

o Utopia Planitia LandformsFall in Hellas Basin

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008452_2175

o Fall in Hellas Basin

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008427_1380

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's Phoenix Mars Lander Uses Soil Probe and Swiss Scope

Guy Webster 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

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

J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
NASA Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

News release: 2008-130 July 10, 2008

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander Uses Soil Probe and Swiss Scope

NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has touched Martian soil with a fork-like probe for the first time and begun using
a microscope that examines shapes of tiny particles by touching them.

Phoenix's robotic arm pushed the fork-like probe's four spikes into undisturbed soil Tuesday as a validation
test of the insertion procedure. The prongs of this thermal and electrical conductivity probe are about 1.5
centimeters, or half an inch, long. The science team will use the probe tool to assess how easily heat and
electricity move through the soil from one spike to another. Such measurements can provide information about
frozen or unfrozen water in the soil.

The probe sits on a "knuckle" of the 2.35-meter-long (7.7-foot-long) robotic arm. Held up in the air, it has
provided assessments of water vapor in the atmosphere several times since Phoenix's May 25 landing on far-
northern Mars. Researchers anticipate getting the probe's first soil measurements following a second
placement into the ground, planned as part of today's Phoenix activities on Mars.

Phoenix also has returned the first image from its atomic force microscope. This Swiss-made microscope
builds an image of the surface of a particle by sensing it with a sharp tip at the end of a spring, all
microfabricated from a sliver of silicon. The sensor rides up and down following the contour of the surface,
providing information about the target's shape.

"The same day we first touched a target with the thermal and electrical conductivity probe, we first touched
another target with a needle about three orders of magnitude smaller -- one of the tips of our atomic force
microscope," said Michael Hecht of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead scientist for the
suite of instruments on Phoenix that includes both the conductivity probe and the microscopy station.

The atomic force microscope can provide details of soil-particle shapes as small as about 100 nanometers,
less than one-hundredth the width of a human hair. This is about 20 times smaller than what can be resolved
with Phoenix's optical microscope, which has provided much higher-magnification imaging than anything seen
on Mars previously.

The first touch of an atomic force microscope tip to a substrate on the microscopy station's sample-
presentation wheel served as a validation test. The substrate will be used to hold soil particles in place for
inspection by the microscope. The microscope's first imaging began Wednesday and produced a calibration
image of a grooved substrate. "It's just amazing when you think that the entire area in this image fits on an
eyelash. I'm looking forward to exciting things to come," Hecht said.

With these developments in the past two days, the spacecraft has put to use all the capabilities of its
Microscopy, Electrochemistry and Conductivity Analyzer, or MECA, suite of instruments. Researchers have
begun analyzing data this week from the second sample of soil tested by MECA's wet chemistry laboratory.

Meanwhile, the Phoenix team is checking for the best method to gather a sample of Martian ice to analyze
using the lander's Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer, which heats samples and identifies vapors from them.
Researchers are using Phoenix's robotic arm to clear off a patch of hard material uncovered in a shallow
trench informally called "Snow White." They plan in coming days to begin using a motorized rasp on the back
of the arm's scoop to loosen bits of the hard material, which is expected to be rich in frozen water.

The atomic force microscope for Phoenix was provided by a consortium led by the University of Neuchatel,
Switzerland.

The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of the University of Arizona with project management at JPL and
development partnership at Lockheed Martin, Denver. International contributions come from the Canadian
Space Agency; the University of Neuchatel; the universities of Copenhagen and Aarhus, Denmark; Max
Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. For more about Phoenix, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/phoenix and http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu.

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Rare 'Star-Making Machine' Found in Distant Universe

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

News Release: 2008-129 July 10, 2008

Rare 'Star-Making Machine' Found in Distant Universe

Astronomers have uncovered an extreme stellar machine -- a galaxy in the very remote
universe pumping out stars at a surprising rate of up to 4,000 per year. In comparison, our
own Milky Way galaxy turns out an average of just 10 stars per year.

The discovery, made possible by several telescopes including NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope, goes against the most common theory of galaxy formation. According to the
theory, called the Hierarchical Model, galaxies slowly bulk up their stars over time by
absorbing tiny pieces of galaxies -- and not in one big burst as observed in the newfound
"Baby Boom" galaxy.

"This galaxy is undergoing a major baby boom, producing most of its stars all at once,"
said Peter Capak of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena. "If our human population was produced in a similar boom, then
almost all of the people alive today would be the same age." Capak is lead author of a
new report detailing the discovery in the July 10th issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The Baby Boom galaxy, which belongs to a class of galaxies called starbursts, is the new
record holder for the brightest starburst galaxy in the very distant universe, with
brightness being a measure of its extreme star-formation rate. It was discovered and
characterized using a suite of telescopes operating at different wavelengths. NASA's
Hubble Space Telescope and Japan's Subaru Telescope, atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, first
spotted the galaxy in visible-light images, where it appeared as an inconspicuous smudge
due to is great distance.

It wasn't until Spitzer and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, also on Mauna Kea in
Hawaii, observed the galaxy at infrared and submillimeter wavelengths, respectively, that
the galaxy stood out as the brightest of the bunch. This is because it has a huge number of
youthful stars. When stars are born, they shine with a lot of ultraviolet light and produce a
lot of dust. The dust absorbs the ultraviolet light but, like a car sitting in the sun, it
warms up and re-emits light at infrared and submillimeter wavelengths, making the
galaxy unusually bright to Spitzer and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope.

To learn more about this galaxy's unique youthful glow, Capak and his team followed up
with a number of telescopes. They used optical measurements from Keck to determine
the exact distance to the galaxy -- a whopping12.3 billion light-years. That's looking back
to a time when the universe was 1.3 billion years old (the universe is approximately 13.7
billion years old today).

"If the universe was a human reaching retirement age, it would have been about 6 years
old at the time we are seeing this galaxy," said Capak.

The astronomers made measurements at radio wavelengths with the National Science
Foundation's Very Large Array in New Mexico. Together with Spitzer and James Clerk
Maxwell data, these observations allowed the astronomers to calculate a star-forming rate
of about 1,000 to 4,000 stars per year. At that rate, the galaxy needs only 50 million
years, not very long on cosmic timescales, to grow into a galaxy equivalent to the most
massive ones we see today.

While galaxies in our nearby universe can produce stars at similarly high rates, the
farthest one known before now was about 11.7 billion light-years away, or a time when
the universe was 1.9 billion years old.

"Before now, we had only seen galaxies form stars like this in the teenaged universe, but
this galaxy is forming when the universe was only a child," said Capak. "The question
now is whether the majority of the very most massive galaxies form very early in the
universe like the Baby Boom galaxy, or whether this is an exceptional case. Answering
this question will help us determine to what degree the Hierarchical Model of galaxy
formation still holds true."

"The incredible star-formation activity we have observed suggests that we may be
witnessing, for the first time, the formation of one of the most massive elliptical galaxies
in the universe," said co-author Nick Scoville of Caltech, the principal investigator of the
Cosmic Evolution Survey, also known as Cosmos. The Cosmos program is an extensive
survey of a large patch of distant galaxies across the full spectrum of light.

"The immediate identification of this galaxy with its extraordinary properties would not
have been possible without the full range of observations in this survey," said Scoville.

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

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

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Ocean Wind Power Maps Reveal Possible Wind Energy Sources

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/Diya Chacko 818-354-0474/393-5464
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov, diya.s.chacko@jpl.nasa.gov

Steve Cole 202-358-0918
NASA Headquarters, Washington
stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2008-128 July 9, 2008

Ocean Wind Power Maps Reveal Possible Wind Energy Sources

PASADENA, Calif. - Efforts to harness the energy potential of Earth's ocean winds could soon
gain an important new tool: global satellite maps from NASA. Scientists have been creating
maps using nearly a decade of data from NASA's QuikSCAT satellite that reveal ocean areas
where winds could produce energy.

The new maps have many potential uses including planning the location of offshore wind farms
to convert wind energy into electric energy. The research, published this week in Geophysical
Research Letters, was funded by NASA's Earth Science Division, which works to advance the
frontiers of scientific discovery about Earth, its climate and its future.

"Wind energy is environmentally friendly. After the initial energy investment to build and install
wind turbines, you don't burn fossil fuels that emit carbon," said study lead author Tim Liu, a
senior research scientist and QuikSCAT science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Like solar power, wind energy is green energy."

QuikSCAT, launched in 1999, tracks the speed, direction and power of winds near the ocean
surface. Data from QuikSCAT, collected continuously by a specialized microwave radar
instrument named SeaWinds, also are used to predict storms and enhance the accuracy of
weather forecasts.

Wind energy has the potential to provide 10 to 15 percent of future world energy requirements,
according to Paul Dimotakis, chief technologist at JPL. If ocean areas with high winds were
tapped for wind energy, they could potentially generate 500 to 800 watts of energy per square
meter, according to Liu's research. Dimotakis notes that while this is slightly less than solar
energy (which generates about one kilowatt, or 1,000 watts, of energy per square meter), wind
power can be converted to electricity more efficiently than solar energy and at a lower cost per
watt of electricity produced.

According to Liu, new technology has made floating wind farms in the open ocean possible. A
number of wind farms are already in operation worldwide. Ocean wind farms have less
environmental impact than onshore wind farms, whose noise tends to disturb sensitive wildlife in
their immediate area. Also, winds are generally stronger over the ocean than on land because
there is less friction over water to slow the winds down -- there are no hills or mountains to block
the wind's path.

Ideally, offshore wind farms should be located in areas where winds blow continuously at high
speeds. The new research identifies such areas and offers explanations for the physical
mechanisms that produce the high winds.

An example of one such high-wind mechanism is located off the coast of Northern California
near Cape Mendocino. The protruding land mass of the cape deflects northerly winds along the
California coast, creating a local wind jet that blows year-round. Similar jets are formed from
westerly winds blowing around Tasmania, New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego in South America,
among other locations. Areas with large-scale, high wind power potential also can be found in
regions of the mid-latitudes of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, where winter storms normally
track.

The new QuikSCAT maps, which add to previous generations of QuikSCAT wind atlases, also
will be beneficial to the shipping industry by highlighting areas of the ocean where high winds
could be hazardous to ships, allowing them to steer clear of these areas.

Scientists use the QuikSCAT data to examine how ocean winds affect weather and climate, by
driving ocean currents, mixing ocean waters and affecting the carbon, heat and water interaction
between the ocean and the atmosphere. JPL manages QuikSCAT for NASA. For more
information about QuikSCAT, visit: http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov .

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov .

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NASA Mission to be Crystal Ball into Oceans' Future, Mirror to the Past

Feature July 8, 2008

NASA Mission to be Crystal Ball into Oceans' Future, Mirror to the Past

Imagine the lives that could be saved from flash floods and drought, the millions of dollars
in fuel costs that could be avoided for fishing vessels, and the homes that could be spared
from the effects of coastline erosion if only scientists could more accurately predict the
dynamics of Earth's often unpredictable oceans. Armed with increasingly more accurate
forecasts, weather services in countries across the globe are improving time-sensitive
warnings of cyclones, flooding and high sea winds, as well as information about when it's
safe to scuba dive, sail, or fish 48 kilometers (30 miles) or more beyond coastlines.

NASA and several other international organizations have joined forces to launch into space
a "crystal ball" to give scientists an extended satellite data record. The data can be used to
improve ocean forecasting and to test the accuracy of climate and weather models using
knowledge of past ocean conditions.

The newly-launched Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason 2 is made up of next-
generation, state-of-the-art, satellite-based instruments that will provide a global view of
Earth's sea surface height every 10 days. Scientists will use these data to create complex
simulations of how ocean currents, tides and eddies might behave. Similarly, the data will
also allow scientists to "hindcast" -- that is, to test how accurate the simulations of past
ocean forecasts were.

"To borrow from an old saying, 'it's the motion of the ocean' that is of most interest to us as
scientists, and our ability to forecast it and learn lessons from it," said one of the mission's
science team members, Robert Leben, an associate research professor at the University of
Colorado in Boulder. "The further we can look into the past with the record of ocean
measurements, the better we can predict future events. That is to say, if one day we can look
back at a 20- or 30-year data record, we can more accurately say what will happen in the
next 10 or 15 years because we will have a data record that indicates trends or correlations
that lead to specific or expected outcomes. OSTM/Jason 2 is going to add to knowledge
we've gained from the Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 missions and put us closer to this goal."

To create the simulations, also called models, that predict ocean behavior, scientists
combine information about factors such as wind speed, wave height, sea level pressure,
temperature and air pressure with data gathered by satellite altimeters that measure the
height of the oceans' surface (more commonly known as sea level). Radar altimeters, like
those on OSTM/Jason 2, measure sea level by sending a radar pulse to the sea surface and
clocking the time it takes for the signal to reflect back. All these data are fed into a
computer program, allowing scientists to see into the future or to gain further insight from
simulations of the past when hindcasting.

OSTM/Jason 2 is slated to orbit Earth and collect this important data set for at least three to
five years. It will provide scientists with significantly more data to test their models, and
extend the record of information available about ocean circulation and how the ocean affects
global climate. During the mission's lifetime, scientists hope to add to what they currently
understand about weather phenomena like El Nino and La Nina. During an El Nino, the
eastern Pacific Ocean temperatures near the equator are warmer than normal, while during La
Nina the same waters are colder than normal. These fluctuations in the Pacific Ocean
temperatures can wreak havoc on climate conditions around the Pacific and beyond, leading
to increased rainfall or drought.

"A longer period of data from the OSTM/Jason 2 mission can tell scientists more about how
El Nino and La Nina are coupled not only to seasonal or yearly changes but to decade-to-
decade oscillations of the Pacific Ocean," said Leben. "Owing to data from the mission's
forerunner Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 missions, scientists have already determined that
decadal fluctuations in the Pacific enhance the frequency and intensity of shorter-term ocean
events such as El Nino and La Nina. Just think of what more we'll learn as we collect future
data from OSTM/Jason 2."

Knowing more about the oceans' behavior, including what El Nino and La Nina climate
conditions may bring, will improve our quality of life and benefit industry. "For example,
forecasts of ocean currents can predict the oceans' salt balance, which can be used to study the
global water cycle," said science team member Yi Chao, a satellite oceanographer at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Water evaporates from the ocean surface, and
water from rivers and land-runoff cycle back into the ocean, so more precise forecasts of these
movements will boost our knowledge of and ability to manage our most precious natural
resource. This mission can help us determine the role of ocean circulation in completing the
global water cycle."

"On the commercial front, offshore industries such as oil and gas exploration and production
require accurate information about ocean circulation to minimize the impacts from strong
currents and eddies," said Leben. "Search and rescue officials, marine operators, recreational
boaters, and marine animal researchers all benefit from increasingly more accessible near real-
time data."

"The Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 missions got us off to a great start," said Chao. "When the
two missions operated together in tandem, they doubled the coverage area and sharpness of
the resolution of the sea level data so that we could 'see' more detail. This higher resolution is
critical for extending the global sea level data into coastal zones, which of course are regions
of great societal importance. OSTM/Jason 2 will provide another opportunity for a tandem
mission with Jason-1."

Leben pointed out that with this new mission, the focus moves from research objectives to
practical ways to apply the data that benefit society in tangible and essential ways.

For more information on OSTM/Jason 2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ostm .

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Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: June 30 - July 4, 2008

MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES
June 30 - July 4, 2008

o Texture (Released 30 June 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080630a

o Texture (Released 01 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080701a

o Hecates Channels (Released 02 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080702a

o Channel (Released 03 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080703a

o Linear Ridges (Released 04 July 2008)

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20080704a

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 - July 2, 2008

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES
July 2, 2008

o Mystery Mounds in Southern Acidalia Planitia

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008548_2205

o Subchannels in Kasei Valles

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008523_2060

o TARs and Unusual Star Ripples

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008323_1735

o Lineated Valley Fill in Coloe Fossae

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_008598_2155

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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