Floundering El Niños Make for Fickle Forecasts

Feature September 28, 2009


Floundering El Niños Make for Fickle Forecasts

Since May 2009, the tropical Pacific Ocean has switched from a cool pattern of ocean
circulation known as La Niña to her warmer sibling, El Niño. This cyclical warming of the
ocean waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific generally occurs every three to
seven years, and is linked with changes in the strength of the trade winds. El Niño can
affect weather worldwide, including the Atlantic hurricane season, Asian monsoon season
and northern hemisphere winter storm season. But while scientists agree that El Niño is
back, there's less consensus about its future strength.

One of the characteristics that signal a developing El Niño is a change in average sea
surface height compared to normal sea level. The NASA/French Space Agency Jason-1
and Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2 satellites continuously observe these
changes in average sea surface height, producing near-global maps of the ocean's
surface topography every 10 days.

Recent data on sea-level height from the Jason-1 and Ocean Surface Topography
Mission/Jason-2 satellites, displayed at http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-
quick-look/ , show that most of the equatorial Pacific is near normal (depicted in the
images as green). The exceptions are the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, which are
exhibiting areas of higher-than-normal sea surface heights (warmer-than-normal sea-
surface temperatures) at 180 and 110 degrees west longitude.

The latest image from Jason-2, which can be seen at
http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/jason1-quick-look/2009/images/20090917P.jpg,
reflects a 10-day data cycle centered around September 17, 2009. It shows a series of
warm "bumps" visible along the equator, denoted in the image by a black line. Known as
Kelvin waves, these pools of warm water were triggered when the normally westward-
blowing trade winds weakened in late July and again in early September, sending them
sliding eastward from the western Pacific toward the Americas. The Kelvin waves are 5 to
10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) high, a few hundred kilometers wide and a few degrees
warmer than surrounding waters. Traveling east at about 3 meters per second (6 miles per
hour), they are expected to reach the coast of Peru in October. (An animation of the
evolution of Pacific Ocean conditions since January 2006 is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/earth/elnino20090928.mov ).

Yet the present condition of this year's El Niño is dwarfed in comparison with the "macho"
El Niño of 1997-1998, which brought devastating floods to California and severe drought to
Indonesia, Australia and the Philippines. As seen in this September 20, 1997, image from
the NASA/French Space Agency Topex/Poseidon satellite (see
http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/files/images/browse/entp2090.gif ), the size and intensity of
the 1997-1998 event were much greater by this time of year. That leads some scientists,
such as Bill Patzert, an oceanographer and climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to express uncertainty as to whether this El Niño event will
intensify enough to deliver the dramatic impacts seen during that last intense El Niño in
1997-1998.

"For the past few months, the trade winds have weakened somewhat, but whether the new
Kelvin waves traveling eastward across the Pacific will be adequate to pump this El Niño
up enough to reinvigorate it and deliver any real impacts remains uncertain," Patzert says.

Patzert notes that it is important to remember that not all El Niños are created equal. "Some
El Niños are show stoppers, but most are mild to modest, with minimal to mixed impacts,"
he says. He notes that since 1998, there have been three mild to moderate El Niño's: in
2002-2003, 2004-2005 and 2006-2007.

None of these events delivered the heart-thumping impacts of the monster El Niño of
1997-1998. During the winter of 1997-1998, Southern California was soaked with nearly
79 centimeters (more than 31 inches) of rain (twice Los Angeles' normal annual rainfall
amount of about 38.5 centimeters, or 15.14 inches). In addition, there was heavy snowpack
in the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains. In comparison, during the past four winters,
Los Angeles has averaged only 24.6 centimeters (9.7 inches) of rain (64 percent of
normal), and snowpacks have been stingy.

In fact, Patzert notes that this El Niño bears many similarities to the 2006-2007 El Niño
event. During that winter, much of the American Southwest experienced record-breaking
drought, and Los Angeles had its driest winter in recorded history.

So what will El Niño 2009-2010 hold in store for the world this coming winter? In spite of
the uncertainties, experienced climate forecasters around the world will continue to
monitor the Pacific closely for further signs of El Niño development and will give it their
best shot.

"Unless present El Niño conditions intensify, I believe this El Niño is too weak to have a
major influence on many weather patterns," he says. "A macho El Niño like that of 1997-
1998 is off the board, but I'm hoping for a relaxation in the tropical trade winds and a
surprise strengthening of El Niño that could result in a shift in winter storm patterns over
the United States. If the trade winds decrease, the ocean waters will continue to warm and
spread eastward, strengthening the El Niño. That scenario could bring atmospheric
patterns that will deliver much-needed rainfall to the southwestern United States this
winter. If not, the dice seem to be loaded for below-normal snowpacks and another drier-
than-normal winter."

Still, Patzert remains hopeful. "Don't give up on this El Niño," he added. "He might make a
late break and put his spin on this fall and winter's weather systems."

To learn more about Jason-1 and the Ocean Surface Topography Mission/Jason-2, visit:
http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov .

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NASA Spacecraft Sees Ice on Mars Exposed by Meteor Impacts

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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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

News release: 2009-148 Sept. 24, 2009

NASA Spacecraft Sees Ice on Mars Exposed by Meteor Impacts

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has revealed frozen water hiding
just below the surface of mid-latitude Mars. The spacecraft's observations were obtained from
orbit after meteorites excavated fresh craters on the Red Planet.

Scientists controlling instruments on the orbiter found bright ice exposed at five Martian sites
with new craters that range in depth from approximately half a meter to 2.5 meters (1.5 feet to 8
feet). The craters did not exist in earlier images of the same sites. Some of the craters show a thin
layer of bright ice atop darker underlying material. The bright patches darkened in the weeks
following initial observations, as the freshly exposed ice vaporized into the thin Martian
atmosphere. One of the new craters had a bright patch of material large enough for one of the
orbiter's instruments to confirm it is water-ice.

The finds indicate water-ice occurs beneath Mars' surface halfway between the north pole and
the equator, a lower latitude than expected in the Martian climate.

"This ice is a relic of a more humid climate from perhaps just several thousand years ago," said
Shane Byrne of the University of Arizona, Tucson.

Byrne is a member of the team operating the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment, or HiRISE camera, which captured the unprecedented images. Byrne and 17 co-
authors report the findings in the Sept. 25 edition of the journal Science.

"We now know we can use new impact sites as probes to look for ice in the shallow subsurface,"
said Megan Kennedy of Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, a co-author of the paper and
member of the team operating the orbiter's Context Camera.

During a typical week, the Context Camera returns more than 200 images of Mars that cover a
total area greater than California. The camera team examines each image, sometimes finding dark
spots that fresh, small craters make in terrain covered with dust. Checking earlier photos of the
same areas can confirm a feature is new. The team has found more than 100 fresh impact sites,
mostly closer to the equator than the ones that revealed ice.

An image from the camera on Aug. 10, 2008, showed apparent cratering that occurred after an
image of the same ground was taken 67 days earlier. The opportunity to study such a fresh
impact site prompted a look by the orbiter's higher resolution camera on Sept. 12, 2009,
confirming a cluster of small craters.

"Something unusual jumped out," Byrne said. "We observed bright material at the bottoms of the
craters with a very distinct color. It looked a lot like ice."

The bright material at that site did not cover enough area for a spectrometer instrument on the
orbiter to determine its composition. However, a Sept. 18, 2008, image of a different mid-
latitude site showed a crater that had not existed eight months earlier. This crater had a larger
area of bright material.

"We were excited about it, so we did a quick-turnaround observation," said co-author Kim Seelos
of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "Everyone thought it
was water-ice, but it was important to get the spectrum for confirmation."

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Scientist Rich Zurek, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., said, "This mission is designed to facilitate coordination and quick response by
the science teams. That makes it possible to detect and understand rapidly changing features."

The ice exposed by fresh impacts suggests that NASA's Viking Lander 2, digging into mid-
latitude Mars in 1976, might have struck ice if it had dug 10 centimeters (4 inches) deeper. The
Viking 2 mission, which consisted of an orbiter and a lander, launched in September 1975 and
became one of the first two space probes to land successfully on the Martian surface. The Viking
1 and 2 landers characterized the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface. They
also conducted on-the-spot biological tests for life on another planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver
built the spacecraft. The Context Camera was built and is operated by Malin Space Science
Systems. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, which Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colo., built. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory led the effort to build the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer and
operates it in coordination with an international team of researchers.

To view images of the craters and learn more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/mro or http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/ .

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NASA Instruments Reveal Water Molecules on Lunar Surface

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
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NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

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

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

News release: 2009-147 Sept. 24, 2009

NASA Instruments Reveal Water Molecules on Lunar Surface

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the
moon. Instruments aboard three separate spacecraft revealed water molecules in amounts that are
greater than predicted, but still relatively small. Hydroxyl, a molecule consisting of one oxygen atom
and one hydrogen atom, also was found in the lunar soil. The findings were published in Thursday's
edition of the journal Science.

NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, or M3, instrument reported the observations. M3 was carried into
space on Oct. 22, 2008, aboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.
Data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, or VIMS, on NASA's Cassini spacecraft,
and the High-Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on NASA's Epoxi spacecraft contributed to
confirmation of the finding. The spacecraft imaging spectrometers made it possible to map lunar
water more effectively than ever before.

The confirmation of elevated water molecules and hydroxyl at these concentrations in the moon's
polar regions raises new questions about its origin and effect on the mineralogy of the moon. Answers
to these questions will be studied and debated for years to come.

"Water ice on the moon has been something of a holy grail for lunar scientists for a very long time,"
said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
"This surprising finding has come about through the ingenuity, perseverance and international
cooperation between NASA and the India Space Research Organization."

From its perch in lunar orbit, M3's state-of-the-art spectrometer measured light reflecting off the
moon's surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colors of the lunar surface into small
enough bits to reveal a new level of detail in surface composition. When the M3 science team
analyzed data from the instrument, they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were
consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl.
"For silicate bodies, such features are typically attributed to water and hydroxyl-bearing materials,"
said Carle Pieters, M3's principal investigator from Brown University, Providence, R.I. "When we say
'water on the moon,' we are not talking about lakes, oceans or even puddles. Water on the moon
means molecules of water and hydroxyl that interact with molecules of rock and dust specifically in
the top millimeters of the moon's surface.

The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon's
surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon's higher latitudes. Water molecules and
hydroxyl previously were suspected in data from a Cassini flyby of the moon in 1999, but the
findings were not published until now.

"The data from Cassini's VIMS instrument and M3 closely agree," said Roger Clark, a U.S.
Geological Survey scientist in Denver and member of both the VIMS and M3 teams. "We see both
water and hydroxyl. While the abundances are not precisely known, as much as 1,000 water molecule
parts-per-million could be in the lunar soil. To put that into perspective, if you harvested one ton of
the top layer of the moon's surface, you could get as much as 32 ounces of water."

For additional confirmation, scientists turned to the Epoxi mission while it was flying past the moon
in June 2009 on its way to a November 2010 encounter with comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft not only
confirmed the VIMS and M3 findings, but also expanded on them.

"With our extended spectral range and views over the north pole, we were able to explore the
distribution of both water and hydroxyl as a function of temperature, latitude, composition, and time
of day," said Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland. Sunshine is Epoxi's deputy principal
investigator and a scientist on the M3 team. "Our analysis unequivocally confirms the presence of
these molecules on the moon's surface and reveals that the entire surface appears to be hydrated
during at least some portion of the lunar day."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the M3 instrument, Cassini mission
and Epoxi spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Indian Space
Research Organization built, launched and operated the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft.

For additional information and images from the instruments, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars .

For more information about the Chandrayaan-1 mission, visit:
http://isro.gov.in/Chandrayaan/htmls/home.htm .

For more information about the EPOXI mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/epoxi .

For more information about the Cassini mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini .

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Teacher Training Opportunity: Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope Program

Teacher Training Opportunity: Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope Program

The Lewis Center for Educational Research (LCER) announces an opportunity
for K - 12 teachers to participate in our rather unique program. The Goldstone
Apple Valley Radio Telescope Program (GAVRT) is an education partnership involving
NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and LCER. It is a K-12 project using
radio astronomy to provide an opportunity for students to experience real science
and to learn that science is an ongoing process and actual discovery is possible.
Using their classroom computer, 32,000 students have taken control of a 34-meter,
500-ton, 9-story-high radio telescope located at NASA's Deep Space Network at
Goldstone, CA. We currently have trained 473 teachers at 283 schools in 37
states across the United States and at American schools in 14 countries and
3 U.S. territories.

What's in it for the kids? They learn how to gather data, understand what the
data mean and how to follow through with analysis. Students and teachers team
with scientists to conduct cutting-edge research leading to discovery. GAVRT
excites students while accomplishing educational and scientific objectives.

We are excited to include Radio JOVE with our training in 2010. Radio JOVE is
a NASA education program: Solar and planetary radio astronomy for schools. It
is a hands-on educational activity that brings the radio sounds of the sun, Jupiter,
the Milky Way galaxy and terrestrial radio noise to students, teachers and the
general public. We target grade levels 6 - 14 to:

• Build a simple radio telescope kit
• Speak with professional radio astronomers
• Make scientific observations
• Interact with radio observatories in real-time

One of our main goals is to motivate students to learn about science by participating
in a scientific activity, making measurements, acquiring and analyzing data, and
sharing and discussing their results with other observers. For further information,
see http://radiojove.gsfc.nasa.gov or call (301) 286-9790 or (615) 898-5946.

Teachers need to attend a 5-day class in order to take this program back to their
students. Teachers interested in participating are invited to apply online at this
time at http://www.lewiscenter.org/gavrt/opportunities.php. We are conducting a 5-day
teacher training class at the Lewis Center on March 8 - 12, July 19 - 23, and October 25 - 29, 2010,
at our facility in Apple Valley, CA. Please check our Web site periodically for calendar
updates. We strongly recommend at least two teachers attend the training from your school
or area. While this is not a requirement, it will definitely serve to help in program
support once back in the classroom. The cost of the 5-day class is $745. For questions,
e-mail gavrt-info@lcer.org or call (760) 946-5414 X234.

More information about GAVRT can be found at http://www.lewiscenter.org/gavrt/ .

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NASA's Spitzer Spots Clump of Swirling Planetary Material

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

News release: 2009-146 Sept. 23, 2009

NASA's Spitzer Spots Clump of Swirling Planetary Material

PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers have witnessed odd behavior around a young star.
Something, perhaps another star or a planet, appears to be pushing a clump of planet-forming
material around. The observations, made with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, offer a rare look
into the early stages of planet formation.

Planets form out of swirling disks of gas and dust. Spitzer observed infrared light coming from
one such disk around a young star, called LRLL 31, over a period of five months. To the
astronomers' surprise, the light varied in unexpected ways, and in as little time as one week.
Planets take millions of years to form, so it's rare to see anything change on time scales we
humans can perceive.

One possible explanation is that a close companion to the star -- either a star or a developing
planet -- could be shoving planet-forming material together, causing its thickness to vary as it
spins around the star.

"We don't know if planets have formed, or will form, but we are gaining a better understanding
of the properties and dynamics of the fine dust that could either become, or indirectly shape, a
planet," said James Muzerolle of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
Muzerolle is first author of a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
"This is a unique, real-time glimpse into the lengthy process of building planets."

One theory of planet formation suggests that planets start out as dusty grains swirling around a
star in a disk. They slowly bulk up in size, collecting more and more mass like sticky snow. As
the planets get bigger and bigger, they carve out gaps in the dust, until a so-called transitional
disk takes shape with a large doughnut-like hole at its center. Over time, this disk fades and a
new type of disk emerges, made up of debris from collisions between planets, asteroids and
comets. Ultimately, a more settled, mature solar system like our own forms.

Before Spitzer was launched in 2003, only a few transitional disks with gaps or holes were
known. With Spitzer's improved infrared vision, dozens have now been found. The space
telescope sensed the warm glow of the disks and indirectly mapped out their structures.

Muzerolle and his team set out to study a family of young stars, many with known transitional
disks. The stars are about two to three million years old and about 1,000 light-years away, in the
IC 348 star-forming region of the constellation Perseus. A few of the stars showed surprising
hints of variations. The astronomers followed up on one, LRLL 31, studying the star over five
months with all three of Spitzer's instruments.

The observations showed that light from the inner region of the star's disk changes every few
weeks, and, in one instance, in only one week. "Transition disks are rare enough, so to see one
with this type of variability is really exciting," said co-author Kevin Flaherty of the University of
Arizona, Tucson.

Both the intensity and the wavelength of infrared light varied over time. For instance, when the
amount of light seen at shorter wavelengths went up, the brightness at longer wavelengths went
down, and vice versa.

Muzerolle and his team say that a companion to the star, circling in a gap in the system's disk,
could explain the data. "A companion in the gap of an almost edge-on disk would periodically
change the height of the inner disk rim as it circles around the star: a higher rim would emit more
light at shorter wavelengths because it is larger and hot, but at the same time, the high rim would
shadow the cool material of the outer disk, causing a decrease in the longer-wavelength light. A
low rim would do the opposite. This is exactly what we observe in our data," said Elise Furlan, a
co-author from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The companion would have to be close in order to move the material around so fast -- about one-
tenth the distance between Earth and the sun.

The astronomers plan to follow up with ground-based telescopes to see if a companion is tugging
on the star hard enough to be perceived. Spitzer will also observe the system again in its "warm"
mission to see if the changes are periodic, as would be expected with an orbiting companion.
Spitzer ran out of coolant in May of this year, and is now operating at a slightly warmer
temperature with two infrared channels still functioning.

"For astronomers, watching anything in real-time is exciting," said Muzerolle. "It's like we're
biologists getting to watch cells grow in a petri dish, only our specimen is light-years away."

Other authors are Zoltan Balog, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany; Paul S. Smith
and George Rieke, University of Arizona; Lori Allen, National Optical Astronomy Observatory,
Tucson; Nuria Calvet, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Paola D'Alessio, National
Autonomous University of Mexico; S. Thomas Megeath, University of Toledo, Ohio; August
Muench, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge; William H. Sherry, National
Solar Observatory, Tucson.

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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Radar Map of Buried Mars Layers Matches Climate Cycles

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

Maria Martinez 210-522-3305
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas
maria.martinez@swri.org

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

News release: 2009-144 September 22, 2009

Radar Map of Buried Mars Layers Matches Climate Cycles

PASADENA, Calif. -- New, three-dimensional imaging of Martian north-polar ice layers by a
radar instrument on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is consistent with theoretical models
of Martian climate swings during the past few million years.

Alignment of the layering patterns with the modeled climate cycles provides insight about how
the layers accumulated. These ice-rich, layered deposits cover an area one-third larger than Texas
and form a stack up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) thick atop a basal deposit with additional ice.

"Contrast in electrical properties between layers is what provides the reflectivity we observe with
the radar," said Nathaniel Putzig of Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colo., a member of
the science team for the Shallow Radar instrument on the orbiter. "The pattern of reflectivity tells
us about the pattern of material variations within the layers."

Earlier radar observations indicated that the Martian north-polar layered deposits are mostly ice.
Radar contrasts between different layers in the deposits are interpreted as differences in the
concentration of rock material, in the form of dust, mixed with the ice. These deposits on Mars
hold about one-third as much water as Earth's Greenland ice sheet.

Putzig and nine co-authors report findings from 358 radar observations in a paper accepted for
publication by the journal Icarus and currently available online.

Their radar results provide a cross-sectional view of the north-polar layered deposits of Mars,
showing that high-reflectivity zones, with multiple contrasting layers, alternate with more-
homogenous zones of lower reflectivity. Patterns of how these two types of zones alternate can
be correlated to models of how changes in Mars' tilt on its axis have produced changes in the
planet's climate in the past 4 million years or so, but only if some possibilities for how the layers
form are ruled out.

"We're not doing the climate modeling here; we are comparing others' modeling results to what
we observe with the radar, and using that comparison to constrain the possible explanations for
how the layers form," Putzig said.

The most recent 300,000 years of Martian history are a period of less dramatic swings in the
planet's tilt than during the preceding 600,000 years. Since the top zone of the north-polar
layered deposits -- the most recently deposited portion -- is strongly radar-reflective, the
researchers propose that such sections of high-contrast layering correspond to periods of
relatively small swings in the planet's tilt.

They also propose a mechanism for how those contrasting layers would form. The observed
pattern does not fit well with an earlier interpretation that the dustier layers in those zones are
formed during high-tilt periods when sunshine on the polar region sublimates some of the top
layer's ice and concentrates the dust left behind. Rather, it fits an alternative interpretation that
the dustier layers are simply deposited during periods when the atmosphere is dustier.

The new radar mapping of the extent and depth of five stacked units in the north-polar layered
deposits reveals that the geographical center of ice deposition probably shifted by 400 kilometers
(250 miles) or more at least once during the past few million years.

"The radar has been giving us spectacular results," said Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a co-author of the paper. "We have mapped continuous
underground layers in three dimensions across a vast area."

The Italian Space Agency operates the Shallow Radar instrument, which it provided for NASA's
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The orbiter has been studying Mars with six advanced instruments
since 2006. It has returned more data from the planet than all other past and current missions to
Mars combined. For more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin
Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft.

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Cassini Reveals New Ring Quirks, Shadows During Saturn Equinox

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

Jia-Rui C. Cook
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0850
jia-rui.c.cook@jpl.nasa.gov

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-142 Sept. 21, 2009

Cassini Reveals New Ring Quirks, Shadows During Saturn Equinox

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA scientists are marveling over the extent of ruffles and dust clouds
revealed in the rings of Saturn during the planet's equinox last month. Scientists once thought the rings
were almost completely flat, but new images reveal the heights of some newly discovered bumps in the
rings are as high as the Rocky Mountains. NASA released the images Monday.

"It's like putting on 3-D glasses and seeing the third dimension for the first time," said Bob
Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This is
among the most important events Cassini has shown us."

On Aug. 11, sunlight hit Saturn's rings exactly edge-on, performing a celestial magic trick that made
them all but disappear. The spectacle occurs twice during each orbit Saturn makes around the sun,
which takes approximately 10,759 Earth days, or about 29.7 Earth years. Earth experiences a similar
equinox phenomenon twice a year; the autumnal equinox will occur Sept. 22, when the sun will shine
directly over Earth's equator.

For about a week, scientists used the Cassini orbiter to look at puffy parts of Saturn's rings caught in
white glare from the low-angle lighting. Scientists have known about vertical clumps sticking out of
the rings in a handful of places, but they could not directly measure the height and breadth of the
undulations and ridges until Saturn's equinox revealed their shadows.

"The biggest surprise was to see so many places of vertical relief above and below the otherwise paper-
thin rings," said Linda Spilker, deputy project scientist at JPL. "To understand what we are seeing will
take more time, but the images and data will help develop a more complete understanding of how old
the rings might be and how they are evolving."

The chunks of ice that make up the main rings spread out 140,000 kilometers (85,000 miles) from the
center of Saturn, but they had been thought to be only around 10 meters (30 feet) thick in the main
rings, known as A, B, C, and D.

In the new images, particles seemed to pile up in vertical formations in each of the rings. Rippling
corrugations -- previously seen by Cassini to extend approximately 804 kilometers (500 miles) in the
innermost D ring -- appear to undulate out to a total of 17,000 kilometers (11,000 miles) through the
neighboring C ring to the B ring.

The heights of some of the newly discovered bumps are comparable to the elevations of the Rocky
Mountains. One ridge of icy ring particles, whipped up by the gravitational pull of Saturn's moon
Daphnis as it travels through the plane of the rings, looms as high as about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles). It
is the tallest vertical wall seen within the rings.

"We thought the plane of the rings was no taller than two stories of a modern-day building and instead
we've come across walls more than 2 miles [3 kilometers] high," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging
team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. "Isn't that the most outrageous thing you
could imagine? It truly is like something out of science fiction."

Scientists also were intrigued by bright streaks in two different rings that appear to be clouds of dust
kicked up in collisions between small space debris and ring particles. Understanding the rate and
locations of impacts will help build better models of contamination and erosion in the rings and refine
estimates of their age. The collision clouds were easier to see under the low-lighting conditions of
equinox than under normal lighting conditions.

At the same time Cassini was snapping visible-light photographs of Saturn's rings, the Composite
Infrared Spectrometer instrument was taking the rings' temperatures. During equinox, the rings cooled
to the lowest temperature ever recorded. The A ring dropped down to a frosty 43 Kelvin (382 degrees
below zero Fahrenheit). Studying ring temperatures at equinox will help scientists better understand
the sizes and other characteristics of the ring particles.

The Cassini spacecraft has been observing Saturn, its moons and rings since it entered the planet's orbit
in 2004. The spacecraft's instruments have discovered new rings and moons and have improved our
understanding of Saturn's ring system.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA and the European and Italian Space
Agencies. JPL manages the mission for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. JPL also designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter and its two onboard
cameras. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute. The Composite Infrared
Spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

To view Cassini images of the equinox and for more information about the mission, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini .

NASA Television's Video File also will air the images and interview sound bites. For downlink,
scheduling information and streaming video, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

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Connecting With Climate Change

Connecting With Climate Change

Want to teach today's coolest topic? Sally Ride Science Educator Institutes
is offering a free, all-day teacher workshop about climate change. You will hear
from the experts, get the latest research and perform hands-on activities.
The material will be targeted for upper elementary and middle school teachers,
but all grade levels are welcome.

The workshop will be held on Nov. 14, 2009, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m., at Lawndale High School
in Lawndale, Calif. Space is limited. To register, go to:

http://www.sallyridescience.com/for_educators/institutes/09lawndale1114

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Sun Educator Conference

Sun Educator Conference

The sun is the most prominent and vital feature in our solar system. It
is the largest object and contains approximately 98 percent of the total
mass of the solar system. Since their launch in 1977, the twin Voyagers'
primary objective was to explore and study the gas giants. In 1989 both Voyagers
then became a heliospheric observation mission measuring the extent of the sun's
influence. Voyager 1 crossed into a region at the outer edge of our solar system
in 2004, followed by Voyager 2 in 2007. In 1990, NASA launched the Ulysses mission
whose goal was to explore the sun during solar maximum, providing us with a wealth
of data that has led to a much broader understanding of the global structure of the
sun's environment and the heliosphere. In 2004, NASA's Genesis sample return mission
brought back a treasure trove of data collected at the Lagrange 1 point and furthered
our understanding of solar wind and improved upon the data set previously collected by
the Apollo missions.

During this day-long conference, experts from the Voyager, Ulysses, Genesis, STEREO and
Earth-exploring missions will be on hand to discuss the structure and content of the sun;
current study of its composition; solar cycles; the importance of the sun to Earth; and
the inner and outer heliosphere. We will discuss and demonstrate activities that you can
use in your classroom to promote a greater appreciation of the inspirational aspects of
space exploration.

Who: All educators (including museum staff) and students (high school and above) interested
in Earth and space science, and exploration. The conference content is generally non-technical
but does include some scientific and engineering content. The objective of the conference is
to tell the exciting tales of real-life exploration and new discovery in a way that will excite
and inspire students. Students under 18 years of age must be accompanied by a registered adult.

When: All day, Saturday, October 17. Check-in begins at 7:45 a.m. The conference will conclude by 5:00 pm.

Where: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's von Karman Auditorium. JPL is located in the foothills of
the San Gabriel's Mountains, north of the Rose Bowl. For directions please visit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/maps.cfm.

Pre-registration is required; walk-up registration will not be possible for this conference. Note
that you will need to show a photo ID at JPL's security checkpoint upon arrival.

How: To register for this conference, please send a check postmarked by Monday, October 5, 2009,
for $25 payable to:

"Jet Propulsion Laboratory" Sun Educator Conference
Attn: Glenda Sherman
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
M/S 600-100
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109

Please register by Monday, October 5, 2009. The $25.00 registration fee includes continental
breakfast, refreshments at breaks and lunch. For registration questions, please call/contact Andrea Angrum
(andrea.angrum@jpl.nasa.gov) at (818) 354-6775 or Aimee Meyer (aimee.l.meyer@jpl.nasa.gov) at
(818) 354-3245. For updates and information visit the JPL Education Gateway at http://education.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Name________________________________________
Title_________________________________________
Organization/School_________________________________________________
Address_______________________________________ State____ Zip________
Grade(s) Taught/Enrolled_____________________________________________
Subject(s) Taught/Enrolled____________________________________________
Contact info for confirmation & last minute changes:
E-mail: ________________________________
Phone: ________________________________

Please enclose $25 Registration Fee. Check # ____________

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In Search of Dark Asteroids (and Other Sneaky Things)

Feature Sept. 18, 2009



In Search of Dark Asteroids (and Other Sneaky Things)

Ninjas knew how to be stealthy: Be dark. Emit very little light. Move in the shadows
between bright places.

In modern warfare, though, ninjas would be sitting ducks. Their black clothes may be
hard to see at night with the naked eye, but their warm bodies would be clearly visible to
a soldier wearing infrared goggles.

To hunt for the "ninjas" of the cosmos -- dim objects that lurk in the vast dark spaces
between planets and stars -- scientists are building by far the most sensitive set of wide-
angle infrared goggles ever, a space telescope called the Wide-field Infrared Survey
Explorer, or WISE.

WISE will scan the entire sky at infrared wavelengths, creating the most comprehensive
catalog yet of dark and dim objects in the cosmos: vast dust clouds, brown dwarf stars,
asteroids -- even large, nearby asteroids that might pose a threat to Earth.

Surveys of nearby asteroids based on visible-light telescopes could be skewed toward
asteroids with more-reflective surfaces. "If there's a significant population of asteroids
nearby that are very dark, they will have been missed by these previous surveys," says
Edward Wright, principal investigator for the mission and a physicist at UCLA.

The full-sky infrared map produced by WISE will reveal even these darker asteroids,
mapping the locations and sizes of roughly 200,000 asteroids and giving scientists a
clearer idea of how many large and potentially dangerous asteroids are nearby. WISE will
also help answer questions about the formation of stars and the evolution and structure of
galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy.

And the discoveries won't likely stop there.

"When you look at the sky with new sensitivity and a new wavelength band, like WISE is
going to do, you're going to find new things that you didn't know were out there,"
Wright says.

Stars emit visible light in part because they're so hot. But cooler objects like asteroids emit
light too, just at longer, infrared wavelengths that are invisible to the unaided eye. In fact,
any object warmer than absolute zero will emit at least some infrared light.

Unfortunately, this fact makes building an infrared telescope rather difficult. Without a
coolant, the telescope itself would glow in infrared light just like as other warm objects
do. It would be like building a normal, visible-light telescope out of Times Square
billboard lights: The telescope would be blinded by its own glow.

To solve this problem, WISE will cool its components to about 15 degrees Celsius above
absolute zero (minus 258 degrees Celsius, or minus 433 degrees Fahrenheit) using a block
of solid hydrogen. Mission scientists chose solid hydrogen over liquid helium, which is
often used in research for cooling materials to near absolute zero, because a smaller
volume of solid hydrogen can do the job. "The cooling power is much higher for
hydrogen than for helium," Wright explains. When launching a telescope into space, being
smaller and lighter saves money.

Previous space telescopes such as the Infrared Astronomical Satellite have mapped the
sky at infrared wavelengths before, but WISE will be hundreds of times more sensitive.
While other missions could only see diffuse sources of infrared light such as large dust
clouds, WISE will be able to see asteroids and other point sources.

After it launches into orbit as early as this December, WISE will spend six months
mapping the sky, during which it will download its data to ground stations four times
each day. Analyzing that data should give scientists some new insights into the cosmos.

For example, one theory posits that most of the stars in the universe were formed in the
press of colliding galaxies. When galaxies collide, interstellar clouds of gas and dust
smash together, compressing the clouds and starting a self-perpetuating cycle of
gravitational collapse. The result is a flurry of star birth. Newborn stars are usually
concealed by the dusty clouds in which they are born. Ordinary light cannot escape, but
infrared light can.

WISE will be able to detect infrared emissions from the most active star-forming regions.
This will help scientists know how rapidly stars are formed during galactic collisions,
which could indicate how many of the universe's stars were formed this way.

WISE will also target dim "failed stars" called brown dwarfs that outnumber ordinary
stars by a wide margin. Mapping brown dwarfs in the Milky Way may reveal much about
the structure and evolution of our own galaxy.

And this could be just the beginning of the discoveries scientists make once WISE puts
the spotlight on stealthy denizens of the dark.

From material at Science@NASA

Media contact:
Whitney Clavin/ Jet Propulsion Laboratory
818-354-4673
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

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Planck Snaps Its First Images of Ancient Cosmic Light

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

News Release: 2009-141 Sept. 17, 2009

Planck Snaps Its First Images of Ancient Cosmic Light

PASADENA, Calif. – The Planck mission has captured its first rough images of the sky,
demonstrating the observatory is working and ready to measure light from the dawn of
time. Planck – a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation –
will survey the entire sky to learn more about the history and evolution of our universe.

The space telescope started surveying the sky regularly on Aug. 13 from its vantage point
far from Earth. Planck is in orbit around the second Lagrange point of our Earth-sun
system, a relatively stable spot located 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) away from
Earth.

"We are beginning to observe ancient light that has traveled more than 13 billion years to
reach us," said Charles Lawrence, the NASA project scientist for the mission at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's tremendously exciting to see these very
first data from Planck. They show that all systems are working well and give a preview of
the all-sky images to come."

A new image can be seen online at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/planck/firstlight20090917.html .

Following launch on May 14, the satellite's subsystems were checked out in parallel with
the cool-down of its instruments' detectors. The detectors are looking for temperature
variations in the cosmic microwave background, which consists of microwaves from the
early universe. The temperature variations are a million times smaller than one degree. To
achieve this precision, Planck's detectors have been cooled to extremely low temperatures,
some of them very close to the lowest temperature theoretically attainable.

Instrument commissioning, optimization and initial calibration were completed by the
second week of August.

During the "first-light" survey, which took place from Aug. 13 to 27, Planck surveyed the
sky continuously. It was carried out to verify the stability of the instruments and the
ability to calibrate them over long periods to the exquisite accuracy needed. The survey
yielded maps of a strip of the sky, one for each of Planck's nine frequencies. Preliminary
analysis indicates that the quality of the data is excellent.

Routine operations will now continue for at least 15 months without a break. In this time,
Planck will be able to gather data for two full independent all-sky maps. To fully exploit
the high sensitivity of Planck, the data will require a great deal of delicate calibrations
and careful analysis. The mission promises to contain a treasure trove of data that will
keep cosmologists and astrophysicists busy for decades to come.

Planck is a European Space Agency mission, with significant participation from NASA.
NASA's Planck Project Office is based at JPL. JPL contributed mission-enabling
technology for both of Planck's science instruments. European, Canadian, U.S. and
NASA Planck scientists will work together to analyze the Planck data. More information
is online at http://www.nasa.gov/planck and http://www.esa.int/planck .

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

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Back to School With JPL

Back to School with JPL

Looking for ways to grab students' attention and get them interested in
science? Here are some activities we suggest:

Classroom Activities
-Back-to-School Quiz
Get your students (and yourself!) up to speed on space events from over the summer.
-- Take the quiz: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/education/backtoschool-20090908.html

-Whip Up a Mouth-Watering Meteorite Activity
A recent meteorite discovery on Mars and an edible classroom activity provide a scrumptious
way to kick off the new school year with a meteorite activity.
-- Go to lesson: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/education/meteorite-20090817.html

-Fire Image Offers Lesson in Space-Based Observations
What can an instrument in space tell us about the fires that raged through southern California?
-- Read more: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/education/fires-20090904.html

Get Inspired
-My (High School) Summer at JPL
Meet three high school students who interned at JPL this summer.
-- Go to video: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=862

Stay Connected
JPL's Education Office is now on Twitter and Facebook, tweeting and sharing teacher
and student information and resources.
NASAJPL_EDU on Twitter
Receive tweets about teacher resources and classroom activities.
-- http://twitter.com/NASAJPL_Edu
NASAJPL Students on Facebook
Become a fan and learn about student opportunities.
-- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pasadena-CA/NASAJPL-Students/240887050396?ref=mf

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Asteroid Juno Grabs the Spotlight

Feature September 16, 2009

Asteroid Juno Grabs the Spotlight

Toward the end of September, the sun will turn a spotlight on the asteroid Juno,
giving that bulky lump of rock a rare featured cameo in the night sky. Those who
get out to a dark, unpolluted sky will be able to spot the asteroid's silvery glint near
the planet Uranus with a pair of binoculars.

"It can usually be seen by a good amateur telescope, but the guy on the street
doesn't usually get a chance to observe it," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's
Near Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "This is going to be as bright as it gets
until 2018."

Juno, one of the first asteroids discovered, is thought to be the parent of many of
the meteorites that rain on Earth. The asteroid is composed mostly of hardy silicate
rock, which is tough enough that fragments broken off by collisions can often
survive a trip through Earth's atmosphere.

Though pockmarked by bang-ups with other asteroids, Juno is large; in fact, it is
the tenth largest asteroid. It measures about 234 kilometers (145 miles) in
diameter, or about one-fifteenth the diameter of the moon.

The asteroid, which orbits the sun on a track between Mars and Jupiter, will be at
its brightest on Sept. 21, when it is zooming around the sun at about 22 kilometers
per second (49,000 miles per hour). At that time, its apparent magnitude will be
7.6, which is about two-and- a-half times brighter than normal. The extra
brightness will come from its position in a direct line with the sun and its proximity
to Earth. (The asteroid will still be about 180 million kilometers [112 million miles]
away, so there is no danger it will fall towards Earth.)

Skywatchers with telescopes can probably see Juno from now until the end of the
year, but it is most visible to binoculars in late September. On or before Sept. 21,
look for Juno near midnight a few degrees east of the brighter glow of Uranus and
in the constellation Pisces. It will look like a gray dot in the sky, and each night at
the end of September, it will appear slightly more southwest of its location the
night before. By Sept. 25, it will be closer to the constellation Aquarius and best
seen before midnight.

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

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Spacecraft Talk Continued During JPL Wildfire Threat

Feature
September 09, 2009

Spacecraft Talk Continued During JPL Wildfire Threat

As the flames of the raging brush fire dubbed the Station Fire
threatened the northern edge of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
on Saturday, Aug. 29, the managers of NASA's Deep Space Network
prepared for the worst.

The Deep Space Operations Center at JPL is the nerve center for the
Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas that
send and receive information to interplanetary spacecraft. Staffed
24/7, 365 days a year, the JPL hub is constantly active connecting
three major antenna sites, numerous mission operation centers run
by NASA and an international group of space agencies, and more
than 30 spacecraft flying throughout our solar system.

"We were more like the nervous center that weekend than the
nerve center," said Wayne Sible of JPL, the network's deputy
program manager for Deep Space Network development, operations
and services.

The Deep Space Network operations managers knew that, fire or no
fire, time was critical for sending software programs to and
downloading diagnostic information from several spacecraft,
including the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which had an
unexpected computer reboot the day the fire started on Aug. 26,
and the Dawn spacecraft, on its way to the asteroid belt.

The network's antennas that send and receive information to
spacecraft, located at Goldstone, in California's Mojave Desert; near
Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia, were never in danger.
But Sible and Jim Hodder, the network's operations manager, got
word on Friday, Aug. 28, that the Station fire, which started in the
San Gabriel Mountains above the Laboratory, was burning towards
JPL. Emergency managers and senior JPL administrators called for JPL
to be closed, except for essential personnel, on Friday evening.

A flurry of phone calls followed -- to the Deep Space Network team,
the mission operation centers and ITT Systems Division, the
contractor that provides the operators for the operations center at
JPL.

On a phone call with Hodder, the team decided to move network
operators to a facility in Monrovia, Calif., where other support work
is normally conducted for the Deep Space Network. The Monrovia
building – about 15 miles from JPL -- offered basic access to the
critical systems, though the operators would not be able to use
personalized computer scripts or notes that facilitate their work.

It seemed practical, since activating the emergency control center at
the Goldstone complex in California's Mojave Desert would be more
disruptive and require some suspension of communications while
they moved staff 150 miles to that location.

Two of the five Deep Space Network operators on weekend duty
were sent to Monrovia, but three volunteered to stay at the control
center at JPL, to ensure systems continued to operate normally, to
keep connections open with the flight projects, and to maintain the
flow of engineering and science data to flight projects and scientists
around the globe.

The three who stayed at JPL – along with about 40 other mission-
critical personnel at any given time – were told not to spend much
time outside. Hodder called frequently to check on the health of the
crew and to obtain status reports on the network.

On Saturday afternoon, Sible and Hodder were ready to pull out
those remaining three operators and put further communications
with the network on hold if the fire reached the Mesa, a flat helipad
and testing site at the northern edge of JPL.

That afternoon, the fire burned to within an eighth of a mile of the
northern border of the lab. Emergency managers told staff to be
ready to evacuate in 30 minutes.

Thankfully, with fire department handcrews cutting firebreaks,
helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft dropping water and flame
retardant, and the wind shifting, the danger passed on Saturday
night. An unpleasant haze of smoke settled on the lab, but the air
had cleared enough for the network operators in Monrovia to
return to JPL Monday evening. The rest of JPL opened as usual on
Tuesday morning at 6 a.m.

In the end, the Deep Space Network was able to complete its 182
scheduled uploading and downloading sessions with spacecraft over
the weekend without interruption.

"It went very well," Sible said. "Nobody saw any hiccups
whatsoever."

More information on the Deep Space Network is online at
http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/ .

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Saturn Moon Could Power 150 Billion Labor Day Barbecues

Feature September 4, 2009

Saturn Moon Could Power 150 Billion Labor Day Barbecues

Since its discovery by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens in 1655, Saturn's most massive
moon, Titan, has been known as a place of mystery and intrigue. The large, cloud-enshrouded
moon is such a scientific enigma that for the past five years, it has been targeted by NASAs
Cassini spacecraft with more than 60 probing flybys. One of its latest findings could be a
valuable asset to future generations of space explorers hunting for materials to whip up a Labor
Day barbecue.

"Titan's atmosphere is extremely rich in an assortment of hydrocarbon chemicals, including
propane, which we use to fill our barbecue tanks," said Cassini scientist Conor Nixon of the
University of Maryland, College Park. "Titan's atmospheric inventory would fuel about 150
billion barbecue cookouts, enough for several thousand years of Labor Days."

For those who are burger, barbecue or Titan challenged, propane is a three-carbon alkane (a
chemical compound consisting of carbon and hydrogen), that is non-toxic and heavier than air.
With its low boiling point of minus 43.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42 degrees Centigrade),
propane vaporizes as soon as it is released from its pressurized container. Here on Earth, propane
is commonly used as a fuel for forklifts, flamethrowers, residential central heating, portable
stoves, hot air balloons, and – of course – barbecues. On other worlds propane is an untapped
resource.

This gas of many terrestrial uses was first discovered in Titan's atmosphere back in 1980 when
NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft flew past the Saturnian system. Over the years, both ground and
space-based instruments have added to the research, but accurately quantifying the amount of
propane on Titan has proved elusive. Then, in 2004, the Cassini spacecraft entered orbit around
Saturn.

Measuring the amount of propane on Titan is important to scientists because the gas is a very
complex molecule, and its signature in the infrared spectrum is close to those of several molecules
scientists are hoping to discover in Titan's atmosphere.

"It was not so much that measuring propane was our endgame, but it helps enormously in our
hunt for other complex molecules," said Nixon. "These include pyrimidines that are potential
building blocks for biological molecules, such as the nuceleobases of our DNA." If we can detect
them on Titan, that would be very significant."

Propane on Titan was measured using data from Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer
instrument. During multiple flybys of the moon between June 2004 and June 2008, the
instrument measured infrared light from the edge of Titan's atmosphere. After a detailed analysis
of the gas's characteristic 'emission bands' or signature, using computer predictions backed by
the latest laboratory research into its infrared spectrum, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer
team came up with an estimate of the amount of propane in Titan's atmosphere So exactly how
much propane does it take to fire 150 billion cookouts?

"We estimate there are nearly 700 million barrels of propane on Titan, said Nixon. "That is
enough to fill six-billion 20-pound tanks of liquefied propane gas. It sounds like a huge amount,
but that would satisfy total U.S. consumption of propane for only 18 months."

Which still leaves, with regards to Saturn's biggest moon, one Labor Day staple still to be
determined. How many hamburgers could future generations of outer-planet explorers grill using
Titan's atmospheric propane?

"A dozen at a time, that's two trillion hamburgers," said Cassini's Nixon, "assuming you stop at
medium-well."

Nixon is the lead author on a paper about propane on Titan to be published in an upcoming issue
of Planetary and Space Science.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Italian Space Agency. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
JPL manages the mission for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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

Doing the math: How do we get from "150 billion barbeque cookouts" to "two trillion" burgers?

You can fit 700 million barrels of propane into about six billion 20-pound tanks of liquefied
propane gas (LPG). As most Labor Day cookouts will probably occur on this planet, we will use
Earth as our barbecue laboratory. On Earth, a full tank of LPG burns for about nine hours –
enough time to turn out 25 to 30 meals. That brings us to about 150 to 180 billion meals. If you
average 12 medium-well patties per meal, then we're talking about 2 trillion burgers. When it
comes to figuring out how many hot dogs could be cooked, you're on your own.

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Preventive Care Continues; Science on Hold

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. Sept. 4, 2009
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER MISSION STATUS REPORT

Preventive Care Continues; Science on Hold

PASADENA, Calif. -- During analysis of four safe-mode events this year, engineers for
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project have identified a vulnerability to the effects of
subsequent events. They are currently developing added protection to eliminate this
vulnerability while they continue analysis of the string of incidents this year in which the
spacecraft has spontaneously rebooted its computer or switched to a backup computer.

The team is keeping the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in a precautionary "safe" mode, with
healthy power, temperatures and communications, while continuing analysis and precautions
subsequent to the latest rebooting, on Aug. 26. Science observations will likely not resume for
several weeks while this preventive care is the mission's priority.

The analysis identified one possible but unlikely scenario jeopardizing the spacecraft. This
scenario would require two computer resets, each worse than any so far, occurring within
several minutes of each other in a certain pattern.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, at Mars since 2006, has met the mission's science goals and
returned more data than all other Mars missions combined. It completed its primary science
phase of operations in November 2008 but remains an important contributor to science and to
future landed missions. Continuing science observations are planned when the spacecraft is
brought out of its current precautionary mode.

-end-

2009-138

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NASA Extends the Opportunity for High School Students to Apply for INSPIRE Project

NASA Extends the Opportunity for High School Students to Apply for INSPIRE Project

NASA's Interdisciplinary National Science Project Incorporating Research Experience, known as INSPIRE, is extending the application
process for high school students to apply from August 27 through September 10. NASA will make selections by the end of September.

The selectees will participate in an online learning community, OLC, in which students and parents have the opportunity to interact with their
peers and NASA engineers and scientists. It also provides appropriate grade level educational activities, discussion boards and chat rooms for
participants and their families to gain exposure to the many career opportunities at NASA.

Students selected for the OLC will have the option to compete for experiences, including paid internships, during the summer of 2010 at NASA
facilities and participating universities throughout the nation. The summer experience provides students a hands-on opportunity to investigate
education and careers in those disciplines.

For information about the project, including details about how to apply, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education/INSPIRE

Please note that this is likely to be the last opportunity to qualify to apply for summer 2010 internships under the INSPIRE project.

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Thousands of New Images Show Mars in High Resolution

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: 2009-136 Sept. 2, 2009

Thousands of New Images Show Mars in High Resolution

PASADENA, Calif. -- Thousands of newly released images from more than 1,500
telescopic observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show a wide range of
gullies, dunes, craters, geological layering and other features on the Red Planet.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the orbiter
recorded these images from the month of April through early August of this year. The
camera team at the University of Arizona, Tucson, releases several featured images each
week and periodically releases much larger sets of new images, such as the batch posted
today.

The new images are available at http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/sept_09.php .

Each full image from HiRISE covers a strip of Martian ground 6 kilometers (3.7 miles)
wide, about two to four times that long, showing details as small as 1 meter, or yard,
across.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been studying Mars with an advanced set of
instruments since 2006. It has returned more data about the planet than all other past and
current missions to Mars combined. For more information about the mission, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,
Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The High
Resolution Imaging Science Experiment is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson,
and the instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

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