Cassini and Amateurs Chase Storm on Saturn

Feature April 29, 2010

Cassini and Amateurs Chase Storm on Saturn

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-143&cid=release_2010-143

With the help of amateur astronomers, the composite infrared spectrometer instrument
aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft has taken its first look at a massive blizzard in
Saturn's atmosphere. The instrument collected the most detailed data to date of
temperatures and gas distribution in that planet's storms.

The data showed a large, turbulent storm, dredging up loads of material from the deep
atmosphere and covering an area at least five times larger than the biggest blizzard in this
year's Washington, D.C.-area storm front nicknamed "Snowmageddon."

"We were so excited to get a heads-up from the amateurs," said Gordon Bjoraker, a
composite infrared spectrometer team member based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md. Normally, he said, "Data from the storm cell would have been
averaged out."

Cassini's radio and plasma wave instrument and imaging cameras have been tracking
thunder and lightning storms on Saturn for years in a band around Saturn's mid-latitudes
nicknamed "storm alley." But storms can come and go on a time scale of weeks, while
Cassini's imaging and spectrometer observations have to be locked in place months in
advance.

The radio and plasma wave instrument regularly picks up electrostatic discharges
associated with the storms, so team members have been sending periodic tips to amateur
astronomers, who can quickly go to their backyard telescopes and try to see the bright
convective storm clouds. Amateur astronomers including Anthony Wesley, Trevor Barry
and Christopher Go got one of those notices in February and were able to take dozens of
pictures over the next several weeks.

In late March, Wesley, an amateur astronomer from Australia who was actually the first
person to detect the new dark spot caused by an impact on Jupiter last summer, sent
Cassini scientists an e-mail with a picture of the storm.

"I wanted to be sure that images like these were being seen by the Cassini team just in
case this was something of interest to be imaged directly by Cassini or the Hubble Space
Telescope," Wesley wrote.

Cassini scientists eagerly pored through the images, including a picture of the storm at its
peak on March 13 by Go, who lives in the Philippines.

By a stroke of luck, the composite infrared spectrometer happened to be targeting the
latitude of the storms. The instrument's scientists knew there could be storms there, but
didn't know when they might be active.

Data obtained by the spectrometer on March 25 and 26 showed larger than expected
amounts of phosphine, a gas typically found in Saturn's deep atmosphere and an indicator
that powerful currents were dredging material upward into the upper troposphere. The
spectrometer data also showed another signature of the storm: the tropopause, the
dividing line between the serene stratosphere and the lower, churning troposphere, was
about 0.5 Kelvin (1 degree Fahrenheit) colder in the storm cell than in neighboring areas.

"A balloonist floating about 100 kilometers down from the bottom of Saturn's calm
stratosphere would experience an ammonia-ice blizzard with the intensity of
Snowmageddon," said Brigette Hesman, a composite infrared spectrometer team member
who is an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland. "These blizzards
appear to be powered by violent storms deeper down – perhaps another 100 to 200
kilometers down – where lightning has been observed and the clouds are made of water
and ammonia."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space
Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed,
developed and assembled at JPL. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., where the instrument was built.

#2010-142

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

Nancy Neal Jones/Elizabeth Zubritsky 301-286-0039/301-614-5438
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
nancy.n.jones@nasa.gov/elizabeth.a.zubritsky@nasa.gov

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NASA Study Sheds Light on Ozone Hole Chemistry

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

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-141 April 28, 2010

NASA STUDY SHEDS LIGHT ON OZONE HOLE CHEMISTRY

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-141&cid=release_2010-141

PASADENA, Calif. - A new NASA study of Earth's polar ozone layer reinforces scientists' understanding of how human-produced chlorine chemicals involved in the destruction of ozone interact with each other.

A team of scientists led by Michelle Santee of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., examined how nighttime temperatures affect chlorine monoxide, a key chemical involved in ozone destruction. Combining NASA satellite measurements with a state-of-the-art chemical model, they found this relationship to be more consistent with recent laboratory work than with some older laboratory and field observational data. This verification is important, because scientists have not been able to conduct appropriate laboratory experiments relevant to understanding how polar chlorine monoxide behaves at night at the lowest temperatures of the stratosphere, Earth's second lowest atmospheric layer.

Santee and her team published their findings this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The data came from the Microwave Limb Sounder instrument on NASA's Aura satellite.

"Our comprehensive study uses multiple years of Arctic and Antarctic satellite observations to quantify the nighttime balance of ozone-destroying chlorine chemical compounds," said Santee. "By gaining a better knowledge of this balance, scientists will be able to make more accurate predictions of polar ozone loss, especially in twilight and in the Arctic, where conditions are often only marginally favorable for ozone destruction."

At night, chlorine monoxide molecules combine to form chlorine peroxide, and the balance between these two chemicals is highly temperature-sensitive. Studying this balance quantitatively is challenging. Previous studies in the laboratory and using aircraft and satellites had found significantly different degrees of balance. The Microwave Limb Sounder's very large number of measurements has quantified this balance far better than before.

The new research contributes to scientific understanding of the phenomenon more commonly known as the "ozone hole." Each year in late winter and early spring in the southern hemisphere, chlorine and bromine from human-produced compounds cause the nearly total destruction of ozone in Earth's stratosphere in a layer about 20 kilometers (12 miles) above Antarctica. These source gases that are responsible for the greatest destruction of the ozone layer are now declining in response to the 1985 Montreal Protocol and its amendments.

Since its launch in 2004, the Microwave Limb Sounder has monitored most of the polar regions of both hemispheres daily, compiling tens of thousands of measurements of nighttime chlorine monoxide levels, along with various other chemicals, including ozone. These data are allowing scientists to test their understanding of chlorine-related chemistry on an unprecedented scale.

For more information on the Microwave Limb Sounder, see http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

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

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Planck Sees a Cold and Stormy Orion

Planck Sees a Cold and Stormy Orion April 26, 2010

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-139&cid=release_2010-139

The big hunter in the sky is seen in a new light by Planck, a European Space Agency mission with significant NASA participation. The long-wavelength image shows most of the constellation Orion, highlighting turbid clouds of cold material, where new stars are being stirred into existence.

The Planck mission is busy surveying the whole sky at longer wavelengths of light than we can see with our eyes, ranging from infrared to even longer-wavelength microwaves. It is collecting ancient light, from the very beginning of time, to learn more about the birth and fate of our universe. In the process, the mission is gathering data on our Milky Way galaxy that astronomers are using to see through cold pools of gas and dust, which block visible-light views of star formation.

The new image is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/planck/planckorion20100426.html. It shows one such region in our Milky Way, where stars are actively bursting to life. The much-photographed Orion nebula is the bright spot to the lower center. The bright spot to the right of center is around the Horsehead Nebula, so called because at high magnifications a pillar of dust resembles a horse's head. The whole view covers a square patch of sky equivalent to 26 by 26 moons.

"Because Planck is mapping the whole sky, we can capture mosaics of huge regions of the Milky Way," said Charles Lawrence, the NASA project scientist for Planck at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We are seeing the coldest material in star-forming regions, where stars are at the very earliest stages of formation."

The giant red arc of Barnard's Loop is thought to be the blast wave from a star that blew up inside the region about two million years ago. The bubble it created is now about 300 light-years across.

The picture shows light resulting from two different types of radiation. At the lowest frequencies, Planck primarily maps emission from ionized gas heated by newly formed hot stars. At higher frequencies, Planck maps the meager heat emitted by extremely cold dust. This can reveal the coldest cores in the clouds, which are approaching the final stages of collapse, before they are reborn as full-fledged stars.

Another new image from Planck shows a similar, yet less vigorous star-forming area called Perseus. It is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/planck/planckperseus20100426.html.

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 .

#2010-139

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

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'This Planet Tastes Funny,' According to Spitzer Telescope

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: 2010-137 April 21, 2010

'THIS PLANET TASTES FUNNY,' ACCORDING TO SPITZER TELESCOPE

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-137&cid=release_2010-137

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered something odd about a
distant planet -- it lacks methane, an ingredient common to many of the planets in our solar
system.

"It's a big puzzle," said Kevin Stevenson, a planetary sciences graduate student at the University
of Central Florida in Orlando, lead author of a study appearing tomorrow, April 22 in the journal
Nature. "Models tell us that the carbon in this planet should be in the form of methane. Theorists
are going to be quite busy trying to figure this one out."

The discovery brings astronomers one step closer to probing the atmospheres of distant planets
the size of Earth. The methane-free planet, called GJ 436b, is about the size of Neptune, making
it the smallest distant planet that any telescope has successfully "tasted," or analyzed. Eventually,
a larger space telescope could use the same kind of technique to search smaller, Earth-like worlds
for methane and other chemical signs of life, such as water, oxygen and carbon dioxide.

"Ultimately, we want to find biosignatures on a small, rocky world. Oxygen, especially with even
a little methane, would tell us that we humans might not be alone," said Stevenson.

"In this case, we expected to find methane not because of the presence of life, but because of the
planet's chemistry. This type of planet should have cooked up methane. It's like dipping bread
into beaten eggs, frying it, and getting oatmeal in the end," said Joseph Harrington of the
University of Central Florida, the principal investigator of the research.

Methane is present on our life-bearing planet, manufactured primarily by microbes living in cows
and soaking in waterlogged rice fields. All of the giant planets in our solar system have methane
too, despite their lack of cows. Neptune is blue because of this chemical, which absorbs red light.
Methane is a common ingredient of relatively cool bodies, including "failed" stars, which are
called brown dwarfs.

In fact, any world with the common atmospheric mix of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, and a
temperature up to 1,000 Kelvin (1,340 degrees Fahrenheit) is expected to have a large amount of
methane and a small amount of carbon monoxide. The carbon should "prefer" to be in the form of
methane at these temperatures.

At 800 Kelvin (or 980 degrees Fahrenheit), GJ 436b is supposed to have abundant methane and
little carbon monoxide. Spitzer observations have shown the opposite. The space telescope has
captured the planet's light in six infrared wavelengths, showing evidence for carbon monoxide
but not methane.

"We're scratching our heads," said Harrington. "But what this does tell us is that there is room for
improvement in our models. Now we have actual data on faraway planets that will teach us
what's really going on in their atmospheres."

GJ 436b is located 33 light-years away in the constellation Leo, the Lion. It rides in a tight, 2.64-
day orbit around its small star, an "M-dwarf" much cooler than our sun. The planet transits, or
crosses in front of, its star as viewed from Earth.

Spitzer was able to detect the faint glow of GJ 436b by watching it slip behind its star, an event
called a secondary eclipse. As the planet disappears, the total light observed from the star system
drops -- this drop is then measured to find the brightness of the planet at various wavelengths.
The technique, first pioneered by Spitzer in 2005, has since been used to measure atmospheric
components of several Jupiter-sized exoplanets, the so-called "hot Jupiters," and now the
Neptune-sized GJ 436b.

"The Spitzer technique is being pushed to smaller, cooler planets more like our Earth than the
previously studied hot Jupiters," said Charles Beichman, director of NASA's Exoplanet Science
Institute at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, both
in Pasadena, Calif. "In coming years, we can expect that a space telescope could characterize the
atmosphere of a rocky planet a few times the size of the Earth. Such a planet might show
signposts of life."

This research was performed before Spitzer ran out of its liquid coolant in May 2009, officially
beginning its "warm" mission.

Other authors include: Sarah Nymeyer, William C. Bowman, Ryan A. Hardy and Nate B. Lust
from the University of Central Florida; Nikku Madhusudhan and Sara Seager of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge; Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; and Emily Rauscher of Columbia University, New York.

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. 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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Classrooms Can Connect With NASA for Earth Day

Classrooms Can Connect With NASA for Earth Day

The following educational activities are sponsored by the NASA/JPL Education Office.


04.18.10 -- How can you and your family help protect our planet? How does NASA study Earth's changing climate? Two
new online activities from the NASA/JPL Education Office give classes the opportunity to share their ideas and submit
questions to a scientist.

An interactive form and map allow users to submit their thoughts about how they can help Earth, see comments from other participants and print a certificate that includes a factoid explaining how NASA studies Earth. Users have the option to include their school name or their first name.

This activity in now online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/earthday/earthdayflash.cfm .

Students can also participate in a live chat on Earth Day, April 22, 2010, at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT. NASA/JPL atmospheric scientist Mike Gunson will take questions for one hour in a text-based Web chat. Classes may pose questions during the live chat or e-mail questions in advance. An effort will be made to answer as many questions as possible.

Details about the chat may be found at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=144 .

Questions for the chat may be e-mailed to education@jpl.nasa.gov by Wed., April 21, 3 p.m. PDT/6 p.m. EDT.

Visit http://education.jpl.nasa.gov for teacher resources, space games and student/faculty programs.

Teachers may follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NASAJPL_Edu .

Students interested in internship information may join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NASAJPLStudents .

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NASA Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Earth Day

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

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: 2010-132 April 16, 2010

NASA CELEBRATES 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF EARTH DAY

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-132&cid=release_2010-132

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA centers across the nation, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif., invite journalists and the public to see and hear about the agency's contributions to
exploring and protecting our home planet during this year's Earth Day celebrations. A highlight of this
year's activities is a weeklong series of exhibits and talks on the National Mall in Washington.

Begun in 1970, Earth Day is the annual celebration of the environment and a time to assess work still
needed to protect the natural resources of our planet. NASA maintains the world's largest contingent
of dedicated Earth scientists and engineers in leading and assisting other agencies in preserving the
planet's environment.

For a comprehensive listing of NASA's Earth Day activities, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/earthday .

All times are local. NASA center events include:

NASA Headquarters, Washington
Sat., April 17 through Sun., April 25 (11 a.m.-5 p.m. EDT) -- NASA is participating in the Earth Day
Celebration on the National Mall organized by the Earth Day Network. The NASA Village, adjacent
to the Smithsonian Metro entrance on the Mall, will feature exhibits, presentations and opportunities
to meet NASA Earth scientists throughout the week.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Thurs., April 22 (10-11 a.m. PDT) -- A live, text-based Earth Day Web chat geared toward students
in third through eighth grades will feature Mike Gunson, project scientist for NASA's Orbiting
Carbon Observatory-2 mission, who will answer questions about how NASA is studying Earth's
climate.

Sat. and Sun., April 24-25 (9 a.m.-5 p.m. PDT) -- JPL will join the Earth Day celebration at the
Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, Calif. The event will include exhibits and handouts on
NASA's Earth science research.

Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Mon., April 19 (1-8 p.m. PDT) -- Reporters and the public are invited to a Green Earth Forum at the
Ames Exploration Center to listen to NASA scientists discuss their research and applications projects.

Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
Wed., April 28 (10 a.m.-2 p.m. PDT) -- Highlights include exhibits and displays from a variety of
environmental agencies, public utilities, conservation groups and businesses, and an opportunity to
recycle personal electronics.

Glenn Research Center, Cleveland
Sun., April 18 (10 a.m.-5 p.m. EDT) -- Displays at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo will focus on the
use of space and aeronautics technology for sustainable energy on Earth, including the NASA-led
Renewable Hydrogen Today project to construct a hydrogen fueling station at the Great Lakes
Science Center.

Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Mon., April 19 (1-2 p.m. EDT) -- Goddard's Digital Learning Network will broadcast a performance
of "Bella Gaia" (Beautiful Earth), a multimedia journey across our planet that combines views of
Earth from space, scientific visualization and an original score from director and composer Kenji
Williams. NASA scientist Christopher Shuman also provides a first-hand look at the changing face of
Antarctica. The performance will be broadcast and streamed live on NASA TV's Education channel
at http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.
Thurs., April 22 (4-5 p.m. EDT) -- NASA scientist Thomas Charlock will discuss global climate
change with teachers during a live webcast on the Digital Learning Network at: http://dln.nasa.gov/dln .

Sat., April 24 (10 a.m.-3 p.m. EDT) -- Exhibits and speakers will be at the Virginia Zoo's "Party for
the Planet: Earth Day at the Zoo" in Norfolk, Va.

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
Thurs., April 22 (10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. CDT) -- Activities on the theme "reducing our carbon footprint"
include a talk about energy by an expert from the Tennessee Valley Authority, a tree-planting
ceremony and an environmental vendor exposition.

Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss.
Tues., April 27 (8:30 a.m.-2 p.m. CDT) -- An environmental workshop for elementary school teachers,
"Helping Our Planet Earth: It's Up to You and Me," includes classroom activities about animal
habitats, "green" tips, recycling and other topics.

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

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Reminder: Climate Change Teacher Workshop

Reminder: Climate Change Teacher Workshop

This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

04.14.10 -- A Chemistry and Climate Change Teacher Workshop is being offered on Tues., April 20, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m., at the NASA/JPL Educator Resource
Center in Pomona, Calif. The free workshop is recommended for teachers of grades 3 through 8.

In this workshop, teachers will get an overview of what NASA scientists know about climate change and how they know it. There will be a quick
introduction to the periodic table of elements, some simple chemistry and a chance for teachers to brainstorm on some "green inventions." This is a
great standards-based way to teach and inspire students to think about human impact on the environment.

Interested educators must contact the resource center in advance at 909-397-4420.

For more information and directions to the NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center, go to http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=115 .

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Flash: NASA's Cassini Sees Lightning on Saturn

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

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

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-129 April 14, 2010

FLASH: NASA'S CASSINI SEES LIGHTNING ON SATURN

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-129&cid=release_2010-129

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Cassini spacecraft has captured images of lightning on Saturn. The
images have allowed scientists to create the first movie showing lightning flashing on another planet.

After waiting years for Saturn to dim enough for the spacecraft's cameras to detect bursts of light,
scientists were able to create the movie, complete with a soundtrack that features the crackle of radio
waves emitted when lightning bolts struck.

"This is the first time we have the visible lightning flash together with the radio data," said Georg
Fischer, a radio and plasma wave science team associate based at the Space Research Institute in
Graz, Austria. "Now that the radio and visible light data line up, we know for sure we are seeing
powerful lightning storms."

The movie and radio data suggest extremely powerful storms with lightning that flashes as brightly as
the brightest super-bolts on Earth, according to Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging science
subsystem team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "What's interesting is
that the storms are as powerful -- or even more powerful -- at Saturn as on Earth," said Ingersoll. "But
they occur much less frequently, with usually only one happening on the planet at any given time,
though it can last for months."

The first images of the lightning were captured in August 2009, during a storm that churned from
January to October 2009 and lasted longer than any other observed lightning storm in the solar
system. Results are described in an article accepted for publication in the journal Geophysical
Research Letters.

To make a video, scientists needed more pictures with brighter lightning and strong radio signals.
Data were collected during a shorter subsequent storm, which occurred from November through mid-
December 2009. The frames in the video were obtained over 16 minutes on Nov. 30, 2009. The
flashes lasted less than one second. The images show a cloud as long as 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles)
across and regions illuminated by lightning flashes about 300 kilometers (190 miles) in diameter.
Scientists use the width of the flashes to gauge the depth of the lightning below the cloud tops.

When lightning strikes on Earth and on Saturn, it emits radio waves at a frequency that can cause
static on an AM radio. The sounds in the video approximate that static sound, based on Saturn
electrostatic discharge signals detected by Cassini's radio and plasma wave science instrument.

Cassini, launched in 1997, and NASA's Voyager mission, launched in 1977, had previously captured
radio emissions from storms on Saturn. A belt around the planet where Cassini has detected radio
emissions and bright, convective clouds earned the nickname "storm alley." Cassini's cameras,
however, had been unable to get pictures of lightning flashing.

Since Cassini's arrival at Saturn in 2004, it has been difficult to see the lightning because the planet is
very bright and reflective. Sunlight shining off Saturn's enormous rings made even the night side of
Saturn brighter than a full-moon night on Earth. Equinox, the period around August 2009 when the
sun shone directly over the planet's equator, finally brought the needed darkness. During equinox, the
sun lit the rings edge-on only and left the bulk of the rings in shadow.

Seeing lightning was another highlight of the equinox period, which already enabled scientists to see
clumps in the rings as high as the Rocky Mountains.

"The visible-light images tell us a lot about the lightning," said Ulyana Dyudina, a Cassini imaging
team associate based at Caltech, who was the first to see the flashes. "Now we can begin to measure
how powerful these storms are, where they form in the cloud layer and how the optical intensity
relates to the total energy of the thunderstorms."
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 in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed,
developed and assembled at JPL.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Small, Ground-Based Telescope Images Three Exoplanets

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

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

News release: 2010-128 April 14, 2010

Small, Ground-Based Telescope Images Three Exoplanets

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-128&cid=release_2010-128

PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers have snapped a picture of three planets orbiting a
star beyond our own using a modest-sized telescope on the ground. The surprising feat
was accomplished by a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,
using a small portion of the Palomar Observatory's Hale Telescope, north of San Diego.

The planets had been imaged previously by two of the world's biggest ground-based
telescopes -- one of the two 10-meter (33-foot) telescopes of W.M. Keck Observatory
and the 8.0-meter (26-foot) Gemini North Observatory, both on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
The planets, which orbit the star HR 8799, were among the very first to be directly
imaged, a discovery announced in Nov. of 2008.

The new image of the planets, taken in infrared light as before, was captured using just a
1.5-meter-diameter (4.9-foot) portion of the Hale telescope's mirror. The astronomy team
took painstaking efforts to push current technology to the point where such a small mirror
could be used. They combined two techniques -- adaptive optics and a coronagraph -- to
minimize the glare from the star and reveal the dim glow of the much fainter planets.

The picture is online at http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/exoplanet20100414-a.html.

"Our technique could be used on larger ground-based telescopes to image planets that are
much closer to their stars, or it could be used on small space telescopes to find possible
Earth-like worlds near bright stars," said Gene Serabyn, an astrophysicist at JPL and
visiting associate in physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Serabyn is lead author of a report on the findings in the April 15 issue of the journal
Nature.

The three planets, called HR8799b, c and d, are thought to be gas giants similar to Jupiter,
but more massive. They orbit their host star at roughly 24, 38 and 68 times the distance
between our Earth and sun, respectively (our Jupiter resides at about five times the Earth-
sun distance). It's possible that rocky worlds like Earth circle closer to the planets' star,
but with current technology, they would be impossible to see under the star's glare.

The star HR 8799 is a bit more massive than our sun, and much younger, at about 60
million years, compared to our sun's approximately 4.6 billion years. It is 120 light-years
away in the constellation Pegasus. This star's planetary system is still active, with bodies
crashing together and kicking up dust, as recently detected by NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope (http://spitzer.caltech.edu/news/1000-feature09-16-Unsettled-Youth-Spitzer-Observes-a-Chaotic-Planetary-System). Like fresh-baked bread out of the oven, the
planets are still warm from their formation and emit enough infrared radiation for
telescopes to see.

To take a picture of HR 8799's planets, Serabyn and his colleagues first used a method
called adaptive optics to reduce the amount of atmospheric blurring, or to take away the
"twinkle" of the star. This technique was optimized by using only a small piece of the
telescope. Once the twinkle was removed, the light from the star itself was blocked using
the team's coronograph, an instrument that selectively masks out the star. A novel "vortex
coronagraph," invented by team member Dimitri Mawet of JPL, was used for this step.
The final result was an image showing the light of three planets.

"The trick is to suppress the starlight without suppressing the planet light," said Serabyn.

The technique can be used to image the space lying just fractions of a degree from a star
(about one degree divided by roughly 10,000). This is as close to the star as that achieved
by Gemini and Keck -- telescopes that are about five and seven times larger, respectively.

Keeping telescopes small is critical for space missions. "This is the kind of technology that
could let us image other Earths," said Wesley Traub, the chief scientist for NASA's
Exoplanet Exploration Program at JPL. "We are on our way toward getting a picture of
another pale blue dot in space."

JPL is a partner with the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in the Palomar
Observatory. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information about exoplanets and
NASA's planet-finding program is at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov . More information
about the Palomar Observatory is at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/palomar/ .

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Deadline Approaching to Register for California's Climate Educator Conference

Deadline Approaching to Register for California's Climate Educator Conference
May 1-2, 2010
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

Confirmed to appear: KABC-TV's Dallas Rains and JPL's Dr. Bill Patzert

What: California contains most climate zones and pretty much all types of weather. Both of these features are in response to local
and global forces including atmospheric circulation, the Pacific Ocean and the state's unique and varied topography. Human factors
play a role as well, from global impact to local decisions on urban growth, fire and water resources.

JPL and local scientists, geographers and planners will address the current climate, the historical record, long range
trends and future forecasts in context. Special attention will be paid to the K-12 California science standards, especially key
areas like fourth grade where California is a year-long theme.

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 detailed scientific content. The
objective of the conference is to tell the exciting tale 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. The bulk of the conference is
presentations, not workshop-type activities, but instructional materials and resources will be shared.

All participants will receive a poster of "California in Three Dimensions" (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03347).

When: All day Saturday, May 1, and the morning of Sunday, May 2, 2010. Check-in begins at 8:00 a.m. On Saturday the
conference will conclude by 5:00 p.m. On Sunday the conference will end at noon, for a total of 12 hours of professional development time.

Where: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's von Kármán Auditorium. JPL is located in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains in
north Pasadena. For directions please visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/maps.cfm. Note that pre-registration is required. Walk-up registration will not be possible for this conference.

How: To register for this conference please send a check postmarked by Monday, April 26, 2010, for $45.00 payable to "Jet Propulsion Laboratory" to:

California Educator Conference
Attn: Mary Kay Kuehn
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
M/S 180-109
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109

Please provide the following information:

Name_______________________________
Title________________________________
Organization/School_______________________________________
Address________________________________ State___ Zip______
Citizenship_________________________ (Please bring a photo ID)
Grade(s) Taught__________________________________________
Subject(s) Taught_________________________________________
Contact info for confirmation & last minute changes:
E-mail: _____________________________
Phone: _____________________________

Please register by Monday, April 26, 2010. The $45 registration fee includes continental breakfast and breaks both days and a box
lunch on Saturday. For registration questions please call the JPL Education Office at 818-393-0561. For other questions please call the
JPL Educator Resource Center at 909-397-4420.

Please visit the newly upgraded JPL Education Gateway (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education for our calendar of upcoming activities. JPL's annual Open House
will be on the weekend of May 15-16, 2010 (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/open-house.cfm.

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Herschel Reveals Ripening Stars Near Rosette Nebula

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

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-122 April 12, 2010

Herschel Reveals Ripening Stars Near Rosette Nebula

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-122&cid=release_2010-122

The Herschel Space Observatory has uncovered a cosmic garden of budding stars, each
expected to grow to 10 times the mass of our sun.

The new image can be seen online at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/herschel/hersch20100412a.html . It was taken using
infrared light by Herschel, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA
participation.

"Herschel can see through cold thickets of dust to where big, baby stars are forming," said
Paul Goldsmith, the NASA project scientist for the mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

The image shows most of the cloud associated with the Rosette nebula, located about
5,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn. The region
contains a family of growing stars, with the oldest and most massive members in the
center of the nebula, and younger and less massive generations located farther out in the
associated cloud. The nebula's cluster of the most massive stars, located beyond the right
edge of the picture, is responsible for hollowing out the cavity. There's enough dust and
gas in the entire Rosette cloud to make about 10,000 suns.

The large, embryonic stars uncovered by Herschel are thought to be a younger generation.
They are located inside the tips of pillars that appear to branch out from thicker cloud
material. The pillars were, in fact, excavated by the nebula's massive star cluster. Winds
and radiation from those stars pushed less dense material away from the pillars, and
probably triggered the birth of the big stars inside the finger-like structures. In fact, the
pillars point to the location of the massive nebula stars.

The intermediate-mass stellar embryos, each a couple of times as massive as the sun, are
located in the redder regions of the image. The small spots near the center of the image
are lower-mass embryonic stars, similar in mass to the sun.

Astronomers study regions like the Rosette not only to learn how stars form in our Milky
Way, but also to get a better idea of what's going on in distant galaxies. When
astronomers look at faraway galaxies, they are seeing light from regions that are bursting
with massive stars. In order to compare our galaxy to distant ones, it is therefore
important to understand high-mass star formation.

Herschel collects the infrared light from dust. The infrared light is color-coded as follows:
light with a wavelength of 70 microns is blue; 160-micron light is green; and 250-micron
light is red. The observations were made with Herschel's Photoconductor Array Camera
and Spectrometer and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver instruments.

The principal investigator of this research is Frédérique Motte of the French National
Center of Scientific Research and Atomic and Alternative Energies Center, Paris-Saclay,
France (see http://hobys-herschel.cea.fr ). Motte was a postdoctoral fellow at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission, with science instruments
provided by a consortia of European institutes and with important participation by
NASA. NASA's Herschel Project Office is based at JPL. JPL contributed mission-
enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA Herschel
Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech in
Pasadena, supports the U.S. astronomical community. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information is online at http://www.herschel.caltech.edu ,
http://www.nasa.gov/herschel and
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html .

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NASA's Global Hawk Completes First Science Flight

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

Beth Hagenauer 661-276-7960
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.
Beth.hagenauer@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-120 April 8, 2010

NASA'S GLOBAL HAWK COMPLETES FIRST SCIENCE FLIGHT

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-120&cid=release_2010-120

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA has successfully completed the first science flight of the Global Hawk
unpiloted aircraft system over the Pacific Ocean. The flight was the first of five scheduled for this
month's Global Hawk Pacific, or GloPac, mission to study atmospheric science over the Pacific and
Arctic oceans.

The Global Hawk is a robotic plane that can fly autonomously to altitudes above 18,288 meters
(60,000 feet) -- roughly twice as high as a commercial airliner -- and as far as 20,372 kilometers
(11,000 nautical miles), which is half the circumference of Earth. Operators pre-program a flight path,
then the plane flies itself for as long as 30 hours, staying in contact through satellite and line-of-site
communications links to a ground control station at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in
California's Mojave Desert.

"The Global Hawk is a revolutionary aircraft for science because of its enormous range and
endurance," said Paul Newman, co-mission scientist for GloPac and an atmospheric scientist from
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "No other science platform provides the
range and time to sample rapidly evolving atmospheric phenomena. This mission is our first
opportunity to demonstrate the unique capabilities of this plane, while gathering atmospheric data in a
region that is poorly sampled."

GloPac researchers plan to directly measure and sample greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting
substances, aerosols and constituents of air quality in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.
GloPac's measurements will cover longer time periods and greater geographic distances than any other
science aircraft.

During Wednesday's flight, the plane flew approximately 8,334 kilometers (4,500 nautical miles)
along a flight path that took it to 150.3 degrees West longitude, and 54.6 degrees North latitude, just
south of Alaska's Kodiak Island. The flight lasted just over 14 hours and flew up to 18,562 meters
(60,900 feet). The mission is a joint project with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, or NOAA.

The plane carries 11 instruments to sample the chemical composition of the troposphere and
stratosphere, including two from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.. The
instruments profile the dynamics and meteorology of both layers and observe the distribution of
clouds and aerosol particles. Project scientists expect to take observations from the equator north to
the Arctic Circle and west of Hawaii.

Although the plane is designed to fly on its own, pilots can change its course or altitude based on
interesting atmospheric phenomena ahead. Researchers have the ability via communications links to
control their instruments from the ground.

"The Global Hawk is a fantastic platform because it gives us expanded access to the atmosphere
beyond what we have with piloted aircraft," said David Fahey, co-mission scientist and a research
physicist at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. "We can go to regions we
couldn't reach or go to previously explored regions and study them for extended periods that are
impossible with conventional planes."

The timing of GloPac flights should allow scientists to observe the breakup of the polar vortex. The
vortex is a large-scale cyclone in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere that dominates winter
weather patterns around the Arctic and is particularly important for understanding ozone depletion in
the Northern Hemisphere.

Scientists also expect to gather high-altitude data between 13,716 and 19,812 meters (45,000 and
65,000 feet), where many greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances are destroyed. They will
measure dust, smoke and pollution that cross the Pacific from Asia and Siberia and affect U.S. air
quality.

Global Hawk will make several flights under NASA's Aura satellite and other "A-train" Earth-
observing satellites, "allowing us to calibrate and confirm what we see from space," Newman added.
GloPac is specifically being conducted in conjunction with NASA's Aura Validation Experiment.

GloPac includes more than 130 researchers and technicians from Goddard, Dryden Flight Research
Center, JPL, and Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. Also involved are NOAA's Earth
System Research Laboratory; the University of California, Santa Cruz; Droplet Measurement
Technologies of Boulder, Colo.; and the University of Denver.

NASA Dryden and the Northrop Grumman Corp. of Rancho Bernardo, Calif., signed a Space Act
Agreement to re-fit and maintain three Global Hawks transferred from the U.S. Air Force for use in
high-altitude, long-duration Earth science missions.

For more on GloPac, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/global-hawk.html . JPL is
managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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NASA-Funded Research Suggests Venus is Geologically Alive

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

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

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

Jane Beitler 303-492-1497
National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder, Colo.
jbeitler@nsidc.org

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-121 April 8, 2010

NASA-FUNDED RESEARCH SUGGESTS VENUS IS GEOLOGICALLY ALIVE

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-121&cid=release_2010-121

PASADENA, Calif. -- For the first time, scientists have detected clear signs of recent lava flows on
the surface of Venus.

The observations reveal that volcanoes on Venus appeared to erupt between a few hundred years to
2.5 million years ago. This suggests the planet may still be geologically active, making Venus one of
the few worlds in our solar system that has been volcanically active within the last 3 million years.

The evidence comes from the European Space Agency's Venus Express mission, which has been in
orbit around the planet since April 2006. The science results were laid over topographic data from
NASA's Magellan spacecraft. Magellan radar-mapped 98 percent of the surface and collected high-
resolution gravity data while orbiting Venus from 1990 to 1994.

Scientists see compositional differences compared to the surrounding landscape in three volcanic
regions. Relatively young lava flows have been identified by the way they emit infrared radiation.
These observations suggest Venus is still capable of volcanic eruptions. The findings appear in the
April 8 edition of the journal Science.

"The geological history of Venus has long been a mystery," said Sue Smrekar, a scientist at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and lead author of the paper describing the work.
"Previous spacecraft gave us hints of volcanic activity, but we didn't know how long ago that
occurred. Now we have strong evidence right at the surface for recent eruptions."

The volcanic provinces, or hotspots, on which Smrekar and her team focused are geologically similar
to Hawaii. Scientists previously detected plumes of hot rising material deep under Venus' surface.
Those plumes are thought to have produced significant volcanic eruptions. Other data from the planet
suggest that volatile gases commonly spewed from volcanoes were breaking down in its atmosphere.
The rate of volcanism will help scientists determine how the interior of the planet works and how
gases emitted during eruptions affect climate.

Something is smoothing Venus' surface, because the planet has only about 1,000 craters, a relatively
small amount compared to other bodies in our solar system. Scientists think it may be the result of
volcanic activity and want to know if it happens quickly or slowly. The Venus Express results suggest
a gradual sequence of smaller volcanic eruptions as opposed to a cataclysmic volcanic episode that
resurfaces the entire planet with lava.

Smrekar and her team also discovered that several volcanic features in the regions they studied show
evidence of minerals found in recent lava flows. These mineral processes correspond to the youngest
volcanic flows in each region, giving scientists additional support for the idea they formed during
recent volcanic activity. On Earth, lava flows react rapidly with oxygen and other elements in the
atmosphere when they erupt to the surface. On Venus, the process is similar, although it is more
intense and changes the outer layer more substantially.

Scientists call Venus Earth's sister planet because of similarities in size, mass, density and volume.
Scientists deduce that both planets shared a common origin, forming at the same time about 4.5
billion years ago. Venus also is the planet on which the runaway greenhouse effect was discovered.
The planet is cloaked in a much less friendly atmosphere than that found on Earth. It is composed
chiefly of carbon dioxide, which generates a surface temperature hot enough to melt lead, and a
surface pressure 90 times greater than that on Earth.

The small group of worlds in our solar system known to be volcanically active today includes Earth
and Jupiter's moon Io. Crater counts on Mars also have suggested recent lava flows. Scientists are
studying evidence of another kind of active volcanism that involves ice-spewing volcanoes on other
moons in our solar system.

NASA sponsored Smrekar's research. The European Space Agency built and manages Venus Express.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

To view the spacecraft data and images, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/pia13001.html .

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NASA Sensors Providing Rapid Estimates of Iceland Volcano Emissions

NASA Sensors Providing Rapid Estimates of Iceland Volcano Emissions April 7, 2010

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-117&cid=release_2010-117

A NASA research team is using the latest advances in satellite artificial intelligence to speed up
estimates of the heat and volume of lava escaping from an erupting volcano in Iceland.

On March 20, 2010, Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano (pronounced "AYA-feeyapla-yurkul,")
awakened for the first time in 120 years, spewing still-active lava fountains and flows. That day, a
NASA "sensor web" -- a network of sensors on the ground and aboard NASA's Earth Observing-1
satellite, alerted researchers to this new volcanic "hot spot." The eruption was detected by
autonomous "sciencecraft" software aboard the satellite, which is known as EO-1.

Sciencecraft software enables the spacecraft to analyze science data onboard to detect scientific events and
respond by sending alerts, producing scientific products and/or re-imaging the event.

The software is typically able to notify researchers on the ground within 90 minutes of detecting
events, and then rapidly sets up the satellite to observe them. In the case of the Iceland volcanic
event, EO-1 was able to take advantage of recently uploaded "smart" software that allows the
spacecraft to react quickly to an event and to rapidly downlink the data for processing by ground
personnel in less than 24 hours. That process used to take three weeks for researchers working
manually.

The artificial intelligence software directed EO-1's Hyperion and Advanced Land Imager instruments
to target the volcano on its next passes over Iceland, which occurred on March 24, 29 and 30. After
image data were transmitted to a ground station at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif., computers automatically analyzed them and created maps and estimates of heat loss and
eruption flow rate.

"Use of autonomous systems in this way represents a new way of doing science, where spacecraft can
think for themselves and react to dynamic and often transient events," explained Ashley Davies, lead
scientist for NASA's New Millennium Program-Space Technology 6 Autonomous Sciencecraft
Experiment at JPL.

"This autonomy technology enables spacecraft to rapidly inform the ground of significant events, like
the volcanic eruption," said Steve Chien, principal investigator for the Autonomous Sciencecraft at
JPL. "This same technology has been used to track fires, flooding and other natural hazards."

"This sensorweb technology enables rapid retasking of the EO-1 spacecraft, making it easier to track
breaking phenomena such as the Iceland volcano," added Daniel Mandl, EO-1 spacecraft mission
manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Goddard manages the EO-1
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Less than 24 hours after the satellite's first observation, the JPL team confirmed the volcano was
emitting more than one billion watts of energy -- enough to power 40,000 passenger cars at the same
time -- and discharging more than six tons of lava per second.

The fully automated process accelerated NASA's distribution of images to volcanologists studying
the eruption. Rapid calculations of lava volume (known as the effusion rate) and location can help
determine the likely direction of lava flows, while giving emergency managers advance warning to
plan and deploy resources, and carry out informed evacuations.

Davies believes he and other researchers can use the "onboard autonomy" to achieve a greater and
faster return rate of new Earth and planetary science data, while offering potentially life-saving
benefits through rapid detection of natural events.

"There is concern that this eruption might precede another larger eruption at the Katla volcano
nearby," said Davies. "If it does, we will be poised to provide imaging data of activity as the eruption
evolves."

#2010-117

Written by:
Gretchen Cook-Anderson
NASA Earth Science News Team

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

Related Links:

Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland on NASA's Earth Observatory
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=43252

NASA's EO-1 mission
http://eo1.gsfc.nasa.gov/

NASA's Autonomous Sciencecraft
http://ase.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA's EO-1 Volcano Sensorweb
http://sensorweb.jpl.nasa.gov

About Ashley Davies
http://science.jpl.nasa.gov/people/ADavies/

About Steve Chien
http://ai.jpl.nasa.gov/public/home/chien/

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Shooting For Shooting Stars

Shooting For Shooting Stars April 7, 2010

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-118&cid=release_2010-118

You know them as "shooting stars," or meteors. Space scientists know them as the fiery end of
tiny visitors from space. Those momentary streaks of light across the night sky are nothing more
than small to almost-microscopic pieces of space debris whose trip through the void has ended in
a kamikaze run into Earth's atmosphere. Of course, with 100 tons of space rock and rubble
bombarding the planet each and every day, you'd think you could stick your head out the
window any night of the week and easily catch a glimpse of a space rock's final moments.

"It doesn't really work that way," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object
Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Sure, there are a lot of
space rocks entering our atmosphere each day, but take into account that only half of the world is
in darkness at any one time and two-thirds of that is over water where almost nobody lives.
Then, factor in that the weather and city-lighting conditions where most people live are less than
conducive for meteor viewing, and few people are even looking up at the appropriate moment.
When you put it all together, it's almost notable that anybody notices these meteors at all."

Which begs the question -- if spotting shooting stars is so tough, what is a person with both good
visual acuity and a passion for celestial light displays to do?

"Meteor showers are definitely the way to go," said Yeomans. "We know pretty much when they
are going to occur and where to look in the night sky." (Go to http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-119 for a guide.)

A meteor shower is the entertaining end game of a comet's passage into the inner solar system.
Each time one of these big blobs of ice and dust ventures into the relatively toasty confines of
the inner solar system (called a perihelion passage), the sun's rays cook off part of its frozen
surface, releasing particles of dust. Each swing through the inner solar system by a comet can
leave trillions of small particles in its wake. If Earth's orbit intersects with this trail of debris, the
result is a meteor shower.

"The comet trails that result in meteor showers can be from comet flybys that occurred hundreds
of years ago," said Yeomans. "Remarkably, we can pin down the cosmic perpetrators. For
example, we know from the similarity of their orbits that the Geminid showers that occur each
December result from the debris of a dead comet called 3200 Phaethon. "

Along with the source of the Geminids, astronomers know that comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher
supplied the particles for April's Lyrids; famous comet Halley is responsible for both May's
Eta Aquarids and October's Orionids; 55P/Tempel-Tuttle funded November's Leonids; and
109P/Swift-Tuttle is the origin of the most celebrated shower of them all – August's Perseids.

By now, you may have noticed that the names of all the showers listed are associated with that
of a constellation. Meteor shower particles travel through space at the same relative velocity and
in parallel paths. When they are sucked in by Earth's gravity and light up in our atmosphere, a
viewer on the ground would note they appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. A
shower's name is usually associated with the nearest constellation in the sky to that single point at
the time of shower maximum.

"Usually, the first couple of nights of a meteor shower have light activity," said Yeomans. "Then,
the number of meteors can increase dramatically as Earth approaches the densest portion of the
stream. After peaking for anywhere from a few hours to a few nights, it decreases back down to
a level where you couldn't distinguish it from a normal night's meteor activity.

"The end of the line for a particle from space can be a great opportunity for scientists to study the
nature of comets," said Yeomans. "But it is more than that. It is a great reminder that what we
live on is essentially a big spacecraft traveling through the solar system and interacting with many
of its parts. And as free entertainment, you can't beat it."

#2010-118

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

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NASA Demonstrates Novel Ocean-Powered Underwater Vehicle

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

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

News release: 2010-111 April 5, 2010

NASA Demonstrates Novel Ocean-Powered Underwater Vehicle

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-111&cid=release_2010-111

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA, U.S. Navy and university researchers have successfully demonstrated the first robotic underwater vehicle to be powered entirely by natural, renewable, ocean thermal energy.

The Sounding Oceanographic Lagrangrian Observer Thermal RECharging (SOLO-TREC) autonomous underwater vehicle uses a novel thermal recharging engine powered by the natural temperature differences found at different ocean depths. Scalable for use on most robotic oceanographic vehicles, this technology breakthrough could usher in a new generation of autonomous underwater vehicles capable of virtually indefinite ocean monitoring for climate and marine animal studies, exploration and surveillance.

Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, completed the first three months of an ocean endurance test of the prototype vehicle off the coast of Hawaii in March.

"People have long dreamed of a machine that produces more energy than it consumes and runs indefinitely," said Jack Jones, a JPL principal engineer and SOLO-TREC co-principal investigator. "While not a true perpetual motion machine, since we actually consume some environmental energy, the prototype system demonstrated by JPL and its partners can continuously monitor the ocean without a limit on its lifetime imposed by energy supply."

"Most of Earth is covered by ocean, yet we know less about the ocean than we do about the surface of some planets," said Yi Chao, a JPL principal scientist and SOLO-TREC principal investigator. "This technology to harvest energy from the ocean will have huge implications for how we can measure and monitor the ocean and its influence on climate."

SOLO-TREC draws upon the ocean's thermal energy as it alternately encounters warm surface water and colder conditions at depth. Key to its operation are the carefully selected waxy substances known as phase-change materials that are contained in 10 external tubes, which house enough material to allow net power generation. As the float surfaces and encounters warm temperatures, the material melts and expands; when it dives and enters cooler waters, the material solidifies and contracts. The expansion of the wax pressurizes oil stored inside the float. This oil periodically drives a hydraulic motor that generates electricity and recharges the vehicle's batteries. Energy from the rechargeable batteries powers the float's hydraulic system, which changes the float's volume (and hence buoyancy), allowing it to move vertically.

So far, SOLO-TREC has completed more than 300 dives from the ocean surface to a depth of 500 meters (1,640 feet). Its thermal recharging engine produced about 1.7 watt-hours, or 6,100 joules, of energy per dive, enough electricity to operate the vehicle's science instruments, GPS receiver, communications device and buoyancy-control pump.

The SOLO-TREC demonstration culminates five years of research and technology development by JPL and Scripps and is funded by the Office of Naval Research. JPL developed the thermal recharging engine, building on the buoyancy engine developed for the Slocum glider by Teledyne Webb Research, Falmouth, Mass. Scripps redesigned the SOLO profiling float and performed the integration. The 84-kilogram (183-pound) SOLO-TREC prototype was tested and deployed by the JPL/Scripps team on Nov. 30, 2009, about 161 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Honolulu.

The performance of underwater robotic vehicles has traditionally been limited by power considerations. "Energy harvesting from the natural environment opens the door for a tremendous expansion in the use of autonomous systems for naval and civilian applications," said Thomas Swean, the Office of Naval Research program manager for SOLO-TREC. "This is particularly true for systems that spend most of their time submerged below the sea surface, where mechanisms for converting energy are not as readily available. The JPL/Scripps concept is unique in that its stored energy gets renewed naturally as the platform traverses ocean thermal gradients, so, in theory, the system has unlimited range and endurance. This is a very significant advance."

SOLO-TREC is now in an extended mission. The JPL/Scripps team plans to operate SOLO-TREC for many more months, if not years. "The present thermal engine shows the great promise in harvesting ocean thermal energy," said Russ Davis, a Scripps oceanographer. "With further engineering refinement, SOLO-TREC has the potential to augment ocean monitoring currently done by the 3,200 battery-powered Argo floats." The international Argo array, supported in part by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, measures temperature, salinity and velocity across the world's ocean. NASA and the U.S. Navy also plan to apply this thermal recharging technology to the next generation of submersible vehicles.

To learn more about SOLO-TREC, visit http://solo-trec.jpl.nasa.gov .

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

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

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Cassini Doubleheader: Flying By Titan and Dione

Cassini Doubleheader: Flying By Titan and Dione April 2, 2010

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-110&cid=release_2010-110

In a special double flyby early next week, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will visit Saturn's
moons Titan and Dione within a period of about a day and a half, with no maneuvers in
between. A fortuitous cosmic alignment allows Cassini to attempt this doubleheader, and
the interest in swinging by Dione influenced the design of its extended mission.

The Titan flyby, planned for Monday, April 5, will take Cassini to within about 7,500
kilometers (4,700 miles) of the moon's surface. The distance is relatively long as far as
encounters go, but it works to the advantage of Cassini's imaging science subsystem.
Cassini's cameras will be able to stare at Titan's haze-shrouded surface for a longer time
and capture high-resolution pictures of the Belet and Senkyo areas, dark regions around
the equator that ripple with sand dunes.

In the early morning of Wednesday, April 7 in UTC time zones, which is around 9 p.m.
on Tuesday, April 6 in California, Cassini will make its closest approach to the medium-
sized icy moon Dione. Cassini will plunge to within about 500 kilometers (300 miles) of
Dione's surface.

This is only Cassini's second close encounter with Dione. The first flyby in October 2005,
and findings from the Voyager spacecraft in the 1990s, hinted that the moon could be
sending out a wisp of charged particles into the magnetic field around Saturn and
potentially exhaling a diffuse plume that contributes material to one of the planet's rings.
Like Enceladus, Saturn's more famous moon with a plume, Dione features bright, fresh
fractures. But if there were a plume on Dione, it would certainly be subtler and produce
less material.

Cassini plans to use its magnetometer and fields and particles instruments to see if it can
find evidence of activity at Dione. Thermal mapping by the composite infrared
spectrometer will also help in that search. In addition, the visual and infrared mapping
spectrometer will examine dark material found on Dione. Scientists would like to
understand the source of this dark material.

Cassini has made three previous double flybys and another two are planned in the years
ahead. The mission is nearing the end of its first extension, known as the Equinox
mission. It will begin its second mission extension, known as the Solstice Mission, in
October 2010.

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 in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed,
developed and assembled at JPL.

More information about the Titan flyby, dubbed "T67," is available at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/titan20100405/ .

More information about the Dione flyby, dubbed "D2," is available at:
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/flybys/dione20100407/

#2010-110

-end-

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

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