Silica on a Mars Volcano Tells of Wet and Cozy Past

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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-361 October 31, 2010

SILICA ON A MARS VOLCANO TELLS OF WET AND COZY PAST

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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-361&cid=release_2010-361

PASADENA, Calif. -- Light-colored mounds of a mineral deposited on a volcanic cone more
than three billion years ago may preserve evidence of one of the most recent habitable
microenvironments on Mars.

Observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter enabled researchers to identify the
mineral as hydrated silica and to see its volcanic context. The mounds' composition and their
location on the flanks of a volcanic cone provide the best evidence yet found on Mars for an
intact deposit from a hydrothermal environment -- a steam fumarole, or hot spring. Such
environments may have provided habitats for some of Earth's earliest life forms.

"The heat and water required to create this deposit probably made this a habitable zone," said
J.R. Skok of Brown University, Providence, R.I., lead author of a paper about these findings
published online today by Nature Geoscience. "If life did exist there, this would be a promising
type of deposit to entomb evidence of it -- a microbial mortuary."

No studies have yet determined whether Mars has ever supported life. The new results add to
accumulating evidence that, at some times and in some places, Mars has had favorable
environments for microbial life. This specific place would have been habitable when most of
Mars was already dry and cold. Concentrations of hydrated silica have been identified on Mars
previously, including a nearly pure patch found by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit in
2007. However, none of those earlier findings were in such an intact setting as this one, and the
setting adds evidence about the origin.

Skok said, "You have spectacular context for this deposit. It's right on the flank of a volcano.
The setting remains essentially the same as it was when the silica was deposited."

The small cone rises about 100 meters (100 yards) from the floor of a shallow bowl named Nili
Patera. The patera, which is the floor of a volcanic caldera, spans about 50 kilometers (30 miles)
in the Syrtis Major volcanic region of equatorial Mars. Before the cone formed, free-flowing lava
blanketed nearby plains. The collapse of an underground magma chamber from which lava had
emanated created the bowl. Subsequent lava flows, still with a runny texture, coated the floor of
Nili Patera. The cone grew from even later flows, apparently after evolution of the underground
magma had thickened its texture so that the erupted lava would mound up.

"We can read a series of chapters in this history book and know that the cone grew from the last
gasp of a giant volcanic system," said John Mustard, Skok's thesis advisor at Brown and a co-
author of the paper. "The cooling and solidification of most of the magma concentrated its silica
and water content."

Observations by cameras on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed patches of bright deposits
near the summit of the cone, fanning down its flank, and on flatter ground in the vicinity. The
Brown researchers partnered with Scott Murchie of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics
Laboratory, Laurel, Md., to analyze the bright exposures with the Compact Reconnaissance
Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument on the orbiter.

Silica can be dissolved, transported and concentrated by hot water or steam. Hydrated silica
identified by the spectrometer in uphill locations -- confirmed by stereo imaging -- indicates that
hot springs or fumaroles fed by underground heating created these deposits. Silica deposits
around hydrothermal vents in Iceland are among the best parallels on Earth.

Murchie said, "The habitable zone would have been within and alongside the conduits carrying
the heated water." The volcanic activity that built the cone in Nili Patera appears to have
happened more recently than the 3.7-billion-year or greater age of Mars' potentially habitable
early wet environments recorded in clay minerals identified from orbit.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA. Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory provided and operates CRISM, one of six instruments on the orbiter. For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro .

-end-

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

Richard Lewis 401-863-3766
Brown University, Providence, R.I.
richard_lewis@brown.edu

Geoffrey Brown 240-228-5618
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md.
geoffrey.brown@jhuapl.edu

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New Project Manager as Voyager Explores New Territory

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
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NEWS RELEASE: 2010-360 Oct. 29, 2010

NEW PROJECT MANAGER AS VOYAGER EXPLORES NEW TERRITORY

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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-360&cid=release_2010-360

PASADENA, Calif. –As NASA's two Voyager spacecraft hurtle towards the edge of our
solar system, a new project manager will shepherd the spacecraft into this unexplored
territory: Suzanne Dodd, whose first job at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif., involved sequencing science and engineering commands for Voyager 1
and 2 in 1984.

"I'm thrilled to re-join a pioneering mission that set up adventures for so many other
spacecraft to follow," Dodd said. "There will be more firsts to come as we gather unique
data once the spacecraft reach interstellar space. There isn't a single mission currently on
the books that will be doing what Voyager is doing."

The Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched on Aug. 20, 1977, is about 14 billion kilometers (9
billion miles) away from the sun. It is the longest continuously operating NASA
spacecraft. The Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched on Sept. 5, 1977, is about 17 billion
kilometers (11 billion miles) away from the sun. It is the most distant active spacecraft.

In four to six years, Voyager 1 is expected to cross beyond the heliosheath, the outer
layer of the bubble around our solar system that is composed of ionized atoms streaming
outward from our sun. Voyager 2 is expected to cross that boundary several years later.
Once beyond our heliosheath, the two Voyager spacecraft will begin exploring the
interstellar medium, which fills the space between stars.

When Dodd started on Voyager, Voyager 2 was on its way to Uranus. She stayed with
the mission until Voyager 2 completed its closest approach to Neptune. No other
spacecraft have visited these two outer planets.

Dodd still keeps a rolled-up sheet of vellum in her cabinet that shows the timeline of
commands communicated to the spacecraft during its closest approach to Neptune on
Aug. 25, 1989. The encounter with our seventh planet revealed the Great Dark Spot, a
giant storm roiling Neptune's atmosphere, and geysers erupting from pinkish-hued
nitrogen ice that forms the polar cap of Neptune's moon Triton.

After leaving Voyager in October 1989, Dodd moved on to other JPL projects, including
NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn. She left JPL in 1999 to work at the Spitzer Science
Center, which processes data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and, later, the
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, which archives infrared astronomy data from
many sources. Dodd eventually managed both those centers, which are based at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

"Coming back to Voyager is like re-learning a language you knew as a kid, but never
spoke as an adult," said Dodd. "I'm excited to be immersed in the details again."

Dodd was also recently named the Spitzer Space Telescope's new project manager.

Dodd says the main challenge with Voyager now is to work within the boundaries of the
spacecrafts' limited resources to make sure they collect the long-anticipated interstellar
data. For example, Voyager's radioisotope power generators, which use heat from the
decay of plutonium to produce electricity, have enabled the spacecraft to operate for this
extended period of time, so far away from the sun. But the power, as expected, decays
over time. While supplies are expected to last through 2020, Dodd and the operations
team will eventually have to turn off some instruments to manage the power resources.

"My job is to make sure the two spacecraft stay healthy and mobile," she said.

Dodd is a native of Gig Harbor, Wash., a town outside of Tacoma. She graduated with a
bachelors of arts degree in math from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., and a
bachelors of science degree in mechanical engineering from Caltech. She also holds a
masters degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California in
Los Angeles.

Nine Voyager project managers preceded Dodd: H.M. "Bud" Schurmeier (1972-76),
John Casani (1976-77), Robert Parks (1978-79), Raymond Heacock (1979-81), Esker
Davis (1981-82), Richard Laeser (1982-86), Norman Haynes (1987-89), George Textor
(1989-97) and Ed Massey (1998 to 2010). Edward C. Stone is the Voyager project
scientist.

The Voyagers were built by JPL, which continues to operate both spacecraft. Caltech
manages JPL for NASA.

More information on Voyager is at http://www.nasa.gov/voyager and
http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov .

Jia-Rui Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

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Study Links Fresh Mars Gullies to Carbon Dioxide

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
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NEWS RELEASE: 2010-359 Oct. 29, 2010

STUDY LINKS FRESH MARS GULLIES TO CARBON DIOXIDE

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-359&cid=release_2010-359

PASADENA, Calif. -- A growing bounty of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
reveals that the timing of new activity in one type of the enigmatic gullies on Mars implicates
carbon-dioxide frost, rather than water, as the agent causing fresh flows of sand.

Researchers have tracked changes in gullies on faces of sand dunes in seven locations on
southern Mars. The periods when changes occurred, as determined by comparisons of before-
and-after images, overlapped in all cases with the known winter build-up of carbon-dioxide frost
on the dunes. Before-and-after pairs that covered periods only in spring, summer and autumn
showed no new activity in those seasons.

"Gullies that look like this on Earth are caused by flowing water, but Mars is a different planet
with its own mysteries," said Serina Diniega, lead author of a report on these findings in the
November issue of the journal Geology. She analyzed these gullies while a graduate student at
the University of Arizona, Tucson, and recently joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena. "The timing we see points to carbon dioxide, and if the mechanism is linked to carbon-
dioxide frost at these dune gullies, the same could be true for other gullies on Mars."

Scientists have suggested various explanations for modern gullies on Mars since fresh-looking
gullies were discovered in images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor in 2000. Some of the
proposed mechanisms involve water, some carbon dioxide, and some neither.

Some fresh gullies are on sand dunes, commonly starting at a crest. Others are on rockier slopes,
such as the inner walls of craters, sometimes starting partway down the slope.

Diniega and co-authors at the University of Arizona and Johns Hopkins University Applied
Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., focused their study on dune gullies that are shaped like rockier
slope gullies, with an alcove at the top, a channel or multiple channels in the middle, and an apron
at the bottom. The 18 dune gullies in which the researchers observed new activity range in size
from about 50 meters or yards long to more than 3 kilometers (2 miles) long.

"The alcove is a cutout at the top," Diniega said. "Material being removed from there ends up in a
fan-shaped apron below."

Because new flows in these gullies apparently occur in winter, rather than at a time when any
frozen water might be most likely to melt, the new report calls for studies of how carbon dioxide,
rather than water, could be involved in the flows. Some carbon dioxide from the Martian
atmosphere freezes on the ground during winter and sublimates back to gaseous form as spring
approaches. The dunes studied are poleward of 40 degrees south latitude.

"One possibility is that a pile of carbon-dioxide frost accumulating on a dune gets thick enough
to avalanche down and drag other material with it," Diniega said. Other suggested mechanisms
are that gas from sublimating frost could lubricate a flow of dry sand or erupt in puffs energetic
enough to trigger slides.

At an increasing number of sites, before-and-after images have documented changes in Martian
gullies. The new report uses images from the Mars Orbiter Camera on Mars Global Surveyor,
which operated from 1997 to 2006, and from the High Resolution Science Imaging Experiment
(HiRISE) camera and Context Camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been
examining Mars since 2006.

"The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is enabling valuable studies of seasonal changes in surface
features on Mars," said Sue Smrekar of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.,
deputy project scientist for this orbiter. "One key to doing that has been the capability to point
from side to side, so that priority targets can be checked more frequently than just when the
spacecraft flies directly overhead. Another is the lengthening span of years covered by first Mars
Global Surveyor and now this mission."

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter. The University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary
Laboratory operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies
Corp., Boulder, Colo. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates the Context
Camera and formerly did the same for the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more about the Mars
Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mro. For more about HiRISE, visit
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu.

-end-

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

Daniel Stolte 520-626-4402
University of Arizona, Tucson
stolte@email.arizona.edu

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NASA Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets are Common

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

Trent Perrotto 202-358-0321
Headquarters, Washington
trent.j.perrotto@nasa.gov

News release: 2010-357 Oct. 28, 2010

NASA Survey Suggests Earth-Sized Planets are Common

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-357&cid=release_2010-357

PASADENA, Calif. -- Nearly one in four stars similar to the sun may host planets as small as
Earth, according to a new study funded by NASA and the University of California.

The study is the most extensive and sensitive planetary census of its kind. Astronomers used the
W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for five years to search 166 sun-like stars near our solar
system for planets of various sizes, ranging from three to 1,000 times the mass of Earth. All of
the planets in the study orbit close to their stars. The results show more small planets than large
ones, indicating small planets are more prevalent in our Milky Way galaxy.

"We studied planets of many masses -- like counting boulders, rocks and pebbles in a canyon --
and found more rocks than boulders, and more pebbles than rocks. Our ground-based technology
can't see the grains of sand, the Earth-size planets, but we can estimate their numbers," said
Andrew Howard of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of the new study.
"Earth-size planets in our galaxy are like grains of sand sprinkled on a beach -- they are
everywhere."

The study appears in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal Science.

The research provides a tantalizing clue that potentially habitable planets could also be common.
These hypothesized Earth-size worlds would orbit farther away from their stars, where
conditions could be favorable for life. NASA's Kepler spacecraft is also surveying sun-like stars
for planets and is expected to find the first true Earth-like planets in the next few years.

Howard and his planet-hunting team, which includes principal investigator Geoff Marcy, also of
the University of California, Berkeley, looked for planets within 80-light-years of Earth, using
the radial velocity, or "wobble," technique.

They measured the numbers of planets falling into five groups, ranging from 1,000 times the mass
of Earth, or about three times the mass of Jupiter, down to three times the mass of Earth. The
search was confined to planets orbiting close to their stars -- within 0.25 astronomical units, or a
quarter of the distance between our sun and Earth.

A distinct trend jumped out of the data: smaller planets outnumber larger ones. Only 1.6 percent
of stars were found to host giant planets orbiting close in. That includes the three highest-mass
planet groups in the study, or planets comparable to Saturn and Jupiter. About 6.5 percent of
stars were found to have intermediate-mass planets, with 10 to 30 times the mass of Earth --
planets the size of Neptune and Uranus. And 11.8 percent had the so-called "super-Earths,"
weighing in at only three to 10 times the mass of Earth.

"During planet formation, small bodies similar to asteroids and comets stick together, eventually
growing to Earth-size and beyond. Not all of the planets grow large enough to become giant
planets like Saturn and Jupiter," Howard said. "It's natural for lots of these building blocks, the
small planets, to be left over in this process."

The astronomers extrapolated from these survey data to estimate that 23 percent of sun-like stars
in our galaxy host even smaller planets, the Earth-sized ones, orbiting in the hot zone close to a
star. "This is the statistical fruit of years of planet-hunting work," said Marcy. "The data tell us
that our galaxy, with its roughly 200 billion stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets, and
that's not counting Earth-size planets that orbit farther away from their stars in the habitable
zone."

The findings challenge a key prediction of some theories of planet formation. Models predict a
planet "desert" in the hot-zone region close to stars, or a drop in the numbers of planets with
masses less than 30 times that of Earth. This desert was thought to arise because most planets
form in the cool, outer region of solar systems, and only the giant planets were thought to migrate
in significant numbers into the hot inner region. The new study finds a surplus of close-in, small
planets where theories had predicted a scarcity.

"We are at the cusp of understanding the frequency of Earth-sized planets among planetary
systems in the solar neighborhood," said Mario R. Perez, Keck program scientist at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "This work is part of a key NASA science program and will
stimulate new theories to explain the significance and impact of these findings."

NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.,
manages time allocation on the Keck telescope for NASA. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
also in Pasadena, manages NASA's Exoplanet Exploration program office. More information
about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program is at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov .

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NASA Work Helps Better Predict World's Smoggiest Days

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

Lori Oliwenstein 626-395-3631
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
lorio@caltech.edu

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-356 Oct. 28, 2010

NASA WORK HELPS BETTER PREDICT WORLD'S SMOGGIEST DAYS

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-356&cid=release_2010-356

PASADENA, Calif. – A research team led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech), both in Pasadena, Calif., has fully characterized a key chemical
reaction that affects the formation of pollutants in smoggy air in the world's urban areas. When
applied to Los Angeles, the laboratory results suggest that, on the most polluted days and in the most
polluted parts of L.A., current models are underestimating ozone levels by 5 to 10 percent.

The results—published this week in the journal Science—are likely to have "a small but significant
impact on the predictions of computer models used to assess air quality, regulate emissions and
estimate the health impact of air pollution," said Mitchio Okumura, professor of chemical physics at
Caltech and one of the principal investigators on the research.

"This work demonstrates how important accurate laboratory measurements are to our understanding
of the atmosphere," said JPL senior research scientist Stanley P. Sander, who led the JPL team's
effort. "This is the first time this crucial chemical reaction has been studied by two teams using
complementary methods that allow its details to be understood."

The key reaction in question in this research is between nitrogen dioxide and the hydroxyl radical. In
the presence of sunlight, these two compounds, along with volatile organic compounds, play
important roles in the chemical reactions that form ozone, which at ground-level is an air pollutant
harmful to plants and animals, including humans.

Until about the last decade, scientists thought these two compounds only combined to form nitric
acid, a fairly stable molecule with a long atmospheric life that slows ozone formation. Chemists
suspected a second reaction might also occur, creating peroxynitrous acid, a less stable compound that
falls apart quickly once created, releasing the hydroxyl radical and nitrogen dioxide to resume ozone
creation. But until now they weren't sure how quickly these reactions occur and how much nitric acid
they create relative to peroxynitrous acid. The JPL team measured this rate using a high-accuracy,
JPL-built, advanced chemical reactor. The Caltech team then determined the ratio of the rates of the
two separate processes.

Theoretical calculations by chemistry professor Anne McCoy at Ohio State University, Columbus,
contributed to understanding of the not-well-studied peroxynitrous acid molecule.

"This work was the synthesis of two very different and difficult experiments," added lead author and
former Caltech graduate student Andrew Mollner with Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
"While neither experiment in isolation provided definitive results, by combining the two data sets, the
parameters needed for air quality models could be precisely determined."

In the end, the researchers found the loss of hydroxyl radical and nitrogen dioxide is slower than
previously thought—although the reactions are fast, fewer of the radicals are ending up as nitric acid
than had been supposed, and more of them are ending up as peroxynitrous acid. "This means less of
the hydroxyl radical and nitrogen dioxide go away, leading to proportionately more ozone, mostly in
polluted areas," Okumura said.

Just how much more? To try to get a handle on how their results might affect predictions of ozone
levels, they turned to Robert Harley, professor of environmental engineering at the University of
California, Berkeley, and William Carter, a research chemist at the University of California,
Riverside—both experts in atmospheric modeling—to look at the ratio's impact on predictions of
ozone concentrations in various parts of Los Angeles in the summer of 2010.

The result: "In the most polluted areas of L.A.," said Okumura, "they calculated up to 10 percent
more ozone production when they used the new rate for nitric acid formation."

Okumura said this strong effect would only occur during the most polluted times of the year, not all
year long. Still, he said, considering the significant health hazards ozone can have—recent research
has reported that a 10 part-per-billion increase in ozone concentration may lead to a four percent
increase in deaths from respiratory causes—any increase in expected ozone levels will be important to
people who regulate emissions and evaluate health risks. The precision of these results reduces the
uncertainty in the models—an important step in the ongoing effort to improve the accuracy of models
used by policymakers.

Okumura believes this work will cause other scientists to reevaluate recommendations made to
modelers on the best parameters to use. For the team, however, the next step is to start looking at a
wider range of atmospheric conditions where this reaction may also be important.

Sander agrees. "The present work focused on atmospheric conditions related to urban smog—i.e.,
relatively warm temperatures and high atmospheric pressure," he said. "But the hydroxyl
radical/nitrogen dioxide reaction is important at many other altitudes. Future work by the two groups
will focus on the parts of the atmosphere affected by long-range transport of pollution by high-
altitude winds [in Earth's middle and upper troposphere] and where ozone depletion from human-
produced substances is important [the stratosphere]."

The research was supported by grants from NASA, the California Air Resources Board, and the
National Science Foundation, along with NASA and Department of Defense fellowships.

JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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NASA Trapped Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Subsurface Water

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: 2010-355 Oct. 28, 2010

NASA Trapped Mars Rover Finds Evidence of Subsurface Water

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-355&cid=release_2010-355

PASADENA, Calif. -- The ground where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit became stuck last
year holds evidence that water, perhaps as snow melt, trickled into the subsurface fairly recently and
on a continuing basis.

Stratified soil layers with different compositions close to the surface led the rover science team to
propose that thin films of water may have entered the ground from frost or snow. The seepage could
have happened during cyclical climate changes in periods when Mars tilted farther on its axis. The
water may have moved down into the sand, carrying soluble minerals deeper than less soluble ones.
Spin-axis tilt varies over timescales of hundreds of thousands of years.

The relatively insoluble minerals near the surface include what is thought to be hematite, silica and
gypsum. Ferric sulfates, which are more soluble, appear to have been dissolved and carried down by
water. None of these minerals are exposed at the surface, which is covered by wind-blown sand and
dust.

"The lack of exposures at the surface indicates the preferential dissolution of ferric sulfates must be a
relatively recent and ongoing process since wind has been systematically stripping soil and altering
landscapes in the region Spirit has been examining," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in
St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

Analysis of these findings appears in a report in the Journal of Geophysical Research published by
Arvidson and 36 co-authors about Spirit's operations from late 2007 until just before the rover
stopped communicating in March.

The twin Mars rovers finished their three-month prime missions in April 2004, then kept exploring in
bonus missions. One of Spirit's six wheels quit working in 2006.

In April 2009, Spirit's left wheels broke through a crust at a site called "Troy" and churned into soft
sand. A second wheel stopped working seven months later. Spirit could not obtain a position slanting
its solar panels toward the sun for the winter, as it had for previous winters. Engineers anticipated it
would enter a low-power, silent hibernation mode, and the rover stopped communicating March 22.
Spring begins next month at Spirit's site, and NASA is using the Deep Space Network and the Mars
Odyssey orbiter to listen if the rover reawakens.

Researchers took advantage of Spirit's months at Troy last year to examine in great detail soil layers
the wheels had exposed, and also neighboring surfaces. Spirit made 13 inches of progress in its last 10
backward drives before energy levels fell too low for further driving in February. Those drives
exposed a new area of soil for possible examination if Spirit does awaken and its robotic arm is still
usable.

"With insufficient solar energy during the winter, Spirit goes into a deep-sleep hibernation mode
where all rover systems are turned off, including the radio and survival heaters," said John Callas,
project manager for Spirit and Opportunity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
"All available solar array energy goes into charging the batteries and keeping the mission clock
running."

The rover is expected to have experienced temperatures colder than it has ever before, and it may not
survive. If Spirit does get back to work, the top priority is a multi-month study that can be done
without driving the rover. The study would measure the rotation of Mars through the Doppler
signature of the stationary rover's radio signal with enough precision to gain new information about
the planet's core. The rover Opportunity has been making steady progress toward a large crater,
Endeavour, which is now approximately 8 kilometers (5 miles) away.

Spirit, Opportunity, and other NASA Mars missions have found evidence of wet Martian
environments billions of years ago that were possibly favorable for life. The Phoenix Mars Lander in
2008 and observations by orbiters since 2002 have identified buried layers of water ice at high and
middle latitudes and frozen water in polar ice caps. These newest Spirit findings contribute to an
accumulating set of clues that Mars may still have small amounts of liquid water at some periods
during ongoing climate cycles.

JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the rovers for the
agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

More information about the rovers is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .

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Space Buckyballs Thrive, Finds NASA Spitzer Telescope

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

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-351 Oct. 27, 2010

Space Buckyballs Thrive, Finds NASA Spitzer Telescope

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-351&cid=release_2010-351

PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers have discovered bucket loads of buckyballs in space. They
used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to find the little carbon spheres throughout our Milky
Way galaxy -- in the space between stars and around three dying stars. What's more, Spitzer
detected buckyballs around a fourth dying star in a nearby galaxy in staggering quantities -- the
equivalent in mass to about 15 of our moons.

Buckyballs, also known as fullerenes, are soccer-ball-shaped molecules consisting of 60 linked
carbon atoms. They are named for their resemblance to the architect Buckminster Fuller's
geodesic domes, an example of which is found at the entrance to Disney's Epcot theme park in
Orlando, Fla. The miniature spheres were first discovered in a lab on Earth 25 years ago, but it
wasn't until this past July that Spitzer was able to provide the first confirmed proof of their
existence in space (see http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-243). At that time,
scientists weren't sure if they had been lucky to find a rare supply, or if perhaps the cosmic balls
were all around.

"It turns out that buckyballs are much more common and abundant in the universe than initially
thought," said astronomer Letizia Stanghellini of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in
Tucson, Ariz. "Spitzer had recently found them in one specific location, but now we see them in
other environments. This has implications for the chemistry of life. It's possible that buckyballs
from outer space provided seeds for life on Earth."

Stanghellini is co-author of a new study appearing online Oct. 28 in the Astrophysical Journal
Letters. Anibal García-Hernández of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain, is the lead
author of the paper. Another Spitzer study about the discovery of buckyballs in space was also
recently published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. It was led by Kris Sellgren of Ohio State
University, Columbus.

The García-Hernández team found the buckyballs around three dying sun-like stars, called
planetary nebulae, in our own Milky Way galaxy. These cloudy objects, made up of material shed
from the dying stars, are similar to the one where Spitzer found the first evidence for their
existence.

The new research shows that all the planetary nebulae in which buckyballs have been detected
are rich in hydrogen. This goes against what researchers thought for decades -- they had assumed
that, as is the case with making buckyballs in the lab, hydrogen could not be present. The
hydrogen, they theorized, would contaminate the carbon, causing it to form chains and other
structures rather than the spheres, which contain no hydrogen at all. "We now know that
fullerenes and hydrogen coexist in planetary nebulae, which is really important for telling us how
they form in space," said García-Hernández.

García-Hernández and his colleagues also located buckyballs in a planetary nebula within a
nearby galaxy called the Small Magellanic Cloud. This was particularly exciting to the
researchers, because, in contrast to the planetary nebulae in the Milky Way, the distance to this
galaxy is known. Knowing the distance to the source of the buckyballs meant that the
astronomers could calculate their quantity -- two percent of Earth's mass, or the mass of 15 of our
moons.

The other new study, from Sellgren and her team, demonstrates that buckyballs are also present
in the space between stars, but not too far away from young solar systems. The cosmic balls may
have been formed in a planetary nebula, or perhaps between stars. A feature story about this
research is online at http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/1212-feature10-18 .

"It's exciting to find buckyballs in between stars that are still forming their solar systems, just a
comet's throw away," Sellgren said. "This could be the link between fullerenes in space and
fullerenes in meteorites."

The implications are far-reaching. Scientists have speculated in the past that buckyballs, which
can act like cages for other molecules and atoms, might have carried substances to Earth that
kick-started life. Evidence for this theory comes from the fact that buckyballs have been found in
meteorites carrying extraterrestial gases.

"Buckyballs are sort of like diamonds with holes in the middle," said Stanghellini. "They are
incredibly stable molecules that are hard to destroy, and they could carry other interesting
molecules inside them. We hope to learn more about the important role they likely play in the
death and birth of stars and planets, and maybe even life itself."

The little carbon balls are important in technology research too. They have potential applications
in superconducting materials, optical devices, medicines, water purification, armor and more.

Other authors of the García-Hernández study are Arturo Manchado, the Instituto de Astrofísica
de Canarias; Pedro García-Lario, European Space Agency Centre, Spain; Eva Villaver,
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain; Richard Shaw, National Optical Astronomy
Observatory; Ryszard Szczerba, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Poland; and José V.
Perea-Calderon, European Space Astronomy Centre, Ingeniería y Servicios Aerospaciales, Spain.

Other authors of the Sellgren study are Michael Werner, Spitzer project scientist, NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; James Ingalls, NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.; J.D.T. Smith, University of Toledo, Ohio; T.M.
Carleton, University of Arizona, Tucson; and Christine Joblin, Université de Toulouse, France.

The Spitzer observations were made before it ran out of its liquid coolant in May 2009 and began
its warm mission. JPL manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center. Caltech manages
JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu/ and
http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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Where on Earth ...? Test Your Skills

Where on Earth ...? Test Your Skills

Where on Earth ...? Become a geographical detective! Use your brains, brawn or hidden talents to get
to the bottom of our mystery image from space, taken by NASA's MISR (Multi-angle Imaging
SpectroRadiometer) instrument onboard the Terra satellite. Take the quiz at http://misr.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/latestImagery/ .

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Countdown to Comet Flyby Down to Nine Days

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

DC Agle 818-354-0474
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-349 October 26, 2010

COUNTDOWN TO COMET FLYBY DOWN TO NINE DAYS

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-349&cid=release_2010-349

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's EPOXI mission continues to close in on its target, comet Hartley 2, at
a rate of 12.5 kilometers (7.8 miles) per second. On Nov. 4 at about 10:01 a.m. EDT (7:01 a.m. PDT)
the spacecraft will make its closest approach to the comet at a distance of about 700 kilometers (434
miles). It will be the fifth time that a comet has been imaged close-up and the first time in history that
two comets have been imaged with the same instruments and same spatial resolution.

"Hartley 2 has already put on a great show with more than a few surprises for the mission's science
team," said EPOXI principal investigator Mike A'Hearn from the University of Maryland, College
Park. "We expect more of the unexpected during encounter."

Science observations of comet Hartley 2 began on Sept. 5. The imaging campaign is more than a
tantalizing tease of things to come. It is providing EPOXI's science team the best extended view of a
comet in history during its pass through the inner solar system. The observations will continue through
the encounter phase of the mission.

The hours surrounding comet encounter will be especially challenging for the mission team as they are
commanding a recycled spacecraft that was not designed for this comet flyby. The spacecraft was
designed and employed successfully for NASA's Deep Impact encounter of comet Tempel 1 back on
July 4, 2005. By recycling Deep Impact's already built, tested and in-flight spacecraft, the EPOXI
mission provided savings on the order of 90% that of a hypothetical mission with similar goals,
starting from the ground up.

"If we were starting from scratch we'd probably move some of the spacecraft's components to different locations," said Tim Larson, project manager for the EPOXI mission from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "But we've developed a creative way to work with what we have. This spacecraft, and mission team, have logged 3.2 billion miles over the past five years, and we are confident that we have a successful plan in place to give Hartley 2 a thorough look-see."

The mission's encounter phase begins the evening of Nov. 3, when the spacecraft is about 18 hours
from the time of closest approach to the comet's nucleus. At that time the spacecraft will stop
transmitting through its large high-gain antenna and reorient itself so its two visible-light and one
infrared imager maintain lock on the comet for the next 24 hours-plus.

"When the encounter phase begins all images the spacecraft takes will be stored aboard its two
computers," said Larson. "Soon after we fly past the comet at about 7 a.m. local time, we will be able
to re-orient the spacecraft so that we maintain imaging lock on the comet nucleus while pointing our
big high gain antenna at Earth."

At that point, the spacecraft will begin beaming down its cache of cometary close-ups while
continuing to take new images. It is expected to take several hours for all the images held aboard
spacecraft memory to be downliked.

"We will be waiting," said A'Hearn. "The images at closest approach won't get to Earth until many
hours after the actual encounter due to the way we use memory on the spacecraft. We will get some
early hints at how this nucleus differs from that of comet Tempel 1 based on five images that will get
to Earth only about one hour after closest approach."

EPOXI is an extended mission that utilizes the already "in-flight" Deep Impact spacecraft to explore
distinct celestial targets of opportunity. The name EPOXI itself is a combination of the names for the
two extended mission components: the extrasolar planet observations, called Extrasolar Planet
Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep
Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI). The spacecraft will continue to be referred to as "Deep
Impact."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the EPOXI mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Maryland, College Park, is home to the
mission's principal investigator, Michael A'Hearn. Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md., is the science lead for the mission's extrasolar planet observations. The
spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.

For more information about EPOXI visit http://www.nasa.gov/epoxi or http://epoxi.umd.edu/.

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Astronomers Find Weird, Warm Spot on an Exoplanet

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: 2010-340 Oct. 19, 2010

Astronomers Find Weird, Warm Spot on an Exoplanet

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-340&cid=release_2010-340

PASADENA, Calif. -- Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a
distant planet with a warm spot in the wrong place.

The gas-giant planet, named upsilon Andromedae b, orbits tightly around its star, with
one face perpetually boiling under the star's heat. It belongs to a class of planets termed
hot Jupiters, so called for their scorching temperatures and large, gaseous constitutions.

One might think the hottest part of these planets would be directly under the sun-facing
side, but previous observations have shown that their hot spots may be shifted slightly
away from this point. Astronomers thought that fierce winds might be pushing hot,
gaseous material around.

But the new finding may throw this theory into question. Using Spitzer, an infrared
observatory, astronomers found that upsilon Andromedae b's hot spot is offset by a
whopping 80 degrees. Basically, the hot spot is over to the side of the planet instead of
directly under the glare of the sun.

"We really didn't expect to find a hot spot with such a large offset," said Ian Crossfield,
lead author of a new paper about the discovery appearing in an upcoming issue of
Astrophysical Journal. "It's clear that we understand even less about the atmospheric
energetics of hot Jupiters than we thought we did."

The results are part of a growing field of exoplanet atmospheric science, pioneered by
Spitzer in 2005, when it became the first telescope to directly detect photons from an
exoplanet, or a planet orbiting a star other than our sun. Since then, Spitzer, along with
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, has studied the atmospheres of several hot Jupiters,
finding water, methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.

In the new study, astronomers report observations of upsilon Andromedae b taken across
five days in February of 2009. This planet whips around its star every 4.6 days, as
measured using the "wobble," or radial velocity technique, with telescopes on the ground.
It does not transit, or cross in front of, its star as many other hot Jupiters studied by
Spitzer do.

Spitzer measured the total combined light from the star and planet, as the planet orbited
around. The telescope can't see the planet directly, but it can detect variations in the total
infrared light from the system that arise as the hot side of the planet comes into Earth's
field of view. The hottest part of the planet will give off the most infrared light.

One might think the system would appear brightest when the planet was directly behind
the star, thus showing its full sun-facing side. Likewise, one might think the system
would appear darkest when the planet swings around toward Earth, showing its backside.
But the system was the brightest when the planet was to the side of the star, with its side
facing Earth. This means that the hottest part of the planet is not under its star. It's sort of
like going to the beach at sunset to feel the most heat. The researchers aren't sure how this
could be.

They've guessed at some possibilities, including supersonic winds triggering shock waves
that heat material up, and star-planet magnetic interactions. But these are just speculation.
As more hot Jupiters are examined, astronomers will test new theories.

"This is a very unexpected result," said Michael Werner, the Spitzer project scientist at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who was not a part of the study.
"Spitzer is showing us that we are a long way from understanding these alien worlds."

The Spitzer observations were made before it ran out of its liquid coolant in May 2009,
officially beginning its warm mission.

Other authors of the study are Brad Hansen of UCLA; Joseph Harrington at the
University of Central Florida, Orlando; James Y-K. Cho of Queen Mary, University of
London, United Kingdom; Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, Md.; Kristen Menou of Columbia University, New York, N.Y.; and Sara
Seager of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston.

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

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Saturday Event: Public Invited to Climate Change Science Symposium at JPL

Saturday Event: Public Invited to Climate Change Science Symposium at JPL
This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

10.14.10 -- JPL's Green Club is sponsoring a free public science symposium about climate change on Saturday,
Oct. 16, from 2 to 4 p.m. at JPL. The talk will also be streamed live over the web.

Climate scientists with expertise in Earth's atmosphere, ocean and ice will present a series of brief talks on the
scientific evidence for global warming. Attendees will learn what they as individuals and as part of society can do to
address global warming.

Brief question-and-answer periods will follow each presentation. All ages are welcome to the talk but the presentations will
be geared to adults.

To watch the live webcast, go to http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .

At JPL, the event is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis, with a seating capacity of 200. The symposium
will be held in JPL's von Karman Auditorium. Directions to the Lab can be found here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/maps.cfm .

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Classrooms, Museums Invited to Ride Along With Comet Encounter

Classrooms, Museums Invited to Ride Along With Comet Encounter
This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

10.13.10 -- NASA's EPOXI mission is three weeks away from its flyby of comet Hartley 2. Students and educators
can watch live web coverage of the encounter on Thurs., Nov. 4 from 6:30 to approximately 8 a.m. Pacific Time (9:30 to 11 a.m. Eastern time).
They can also send questions in advance about the comet encounter to jplspaceeducation@gmail.com . Due to program constraints,
not all questions will be answered.

This flyby will be only the fifth time in history that a comet has been imaged close-up. At point of closest approach, the spacecraft will be
about 700 kilometers (435 miles) from the comet. EPOXI is an extended mission that uses the already "in-flight" Deep Impact spacecraft,
which made its own cosmic fame when it released a small impactor into the path of comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005.

The program will offer live coverage from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's mission control, where viewers will hear from scientists and engineers
as they receive real-time data and images about the comet encounter. The program will also feature a roughly 20-minute education portion,
featuring videotaped demonstrations of comet activities for the classroom and time to answer questions sent in by classrooms and other educational
organizations. Details are provided below on the program content and suggested preparatory materials.

The program will air on JPL's UStream page at http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 . NASA TV may be carrying space shuttle Discovery coverage. Check the NASA TV
program schedule for updates at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html . If the program is not on NASA TV, it should air on NASA's Education Channel, which can be clicked on from the right side of the NASA TV program schedule web page.

To learn more about the EPOXI mission, go to http://epoxi.umd.edu/ . To learn more about the Deep Impact mission, go to http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact/index.cfm .

Program Schedule *All times and content are approximate

6:30 a.m. - Welcome and spacecraft tracking

~ 7 a.m. - Closest approach to comet (** images will not be received at this time)

7:15 -- 7:45 a.m. - Mission status and comet activities for the classroom; student questions answered

~ 8 a.m. - Closest approach images viewed

End of program

Suggested Classroom Preparation

Educators can review information about the mission and comets on the websites above. During the program we plan on showing a
demonstration of how to make a comet with dry ice. We also plan to show a demonstration of a Comet on a Stick activity using craft materials.
Teachers may wish to have their students make comets as a follow-up activity to the encounter. A full description of the Comet on a Stick activity can be found at http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/educ/CometStick01.html .

Suggested materials for Comet on a Stick are:

- Styrofoam balls (1 per student)
- Popsicle sticks or plastic straws (1 per student)
- Assortment of pompoms, cotton balls, packing "popcorn" or any other small material that can be glued to Styrofoam balls
- Pipe cleaners (at least 2 per student)
- Tin foil
- Pillow filling or big pieces of cotton that can be pulled apart
- Clear plastic wrap or cellophane
- Ribbon or any material that can be used as a tail
- Craft glue
- Clear tape

Directions:

1. Insert straw or popsicle stick into Styrofoam ball. The ball is the comet, the stick is merely to hold the comet.

2. Nucleus: Comets have uneven shapes so glue pompons or other materials to the ball so it has an uneven look.

3. Comets are icy so glue or tape pieces of tin foil to the ball.

4. To make the coma, or comet cloud, glue or tape pillow filling, cellophane or plastic wrap around the decorated ball.

5. To create the dust tail and ion tail, push pipe cleaners into ball and/or tape ribbon onto outside of decorated ball.

Comets come in all shapes and sizes so whatever your students create are good comet models. A video demonstration of this activity
and How to Make a Comet with Dry Ice will be posted on http://education.jpl.nasa.gov close to November 4.


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NASA Mission to Asteroid Gets Help From Hubble

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/D.C. Agle 818-354-0850/393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov/agle@jpl.nasa.gov

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

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2010-330 Oct. 8, 2010

NASA Mission to Asteroid Gets Help From Hubble

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-330&cid=release_2010-330

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured images of the large asteroid Vesta
that will help refine plans for the Dawn spacecraft's rendezvous with Vesta in July 2011.

Scientists have constructed a video from the images that will help improve pointing instructions for Dawn as it
is placed in a polar orbit around Vesta. Analyses of Hubble images revealed a pole orientation, or tilt, of
approximately four degrees more to the asteroid's east than scientists previously thought.

This means the change of seasons between the southern and northern hemispheres of Vesta may take place
about a month later than previously expected while Dawn is orbiting the asteroid. The result is a change in the
pattern of sunlight expected to illuminate the asteroid. Dawn needs solar illumination for imaging and some
mapping activities.

"While Vesta is the brightest asteroid in the sky, its small size makes it difficult to image from Earth," said
Jian-Yang Li, a scientist participating in the Dawn mission from the University of Maryland in College Park.
"The new Hubble images give Dawn scientists a better sense of how Vesta is spinning, because our new
views are 90 degrees different from our previous images. It's like having a street-level view and adding a
view from an airplane overhead."

The recent images were obtained by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 in February. The images complemented
previous ones of Vesta taken from ground-based telescopes and Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary
Camera 2 between 1983 and 2007. Li and his colleagues looked at 216 new images -- and a total of 446
Hubble images overall -- to clarify how Vesta was spinning. The journal Icarus recently published the report
online.

"The new results give us food for thought as we make our way toward Vesta," said
Christopher Russell, Dawn's principal investigator at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Because our
goal is to take pictures of the entire surface and measure the elevation of features over most of the surface to
an accuracy of about 33 feet, or the height of a three-story building, we need to pay close attention to the
solar illumination. It looks as if Vesta is going to have a late northern spring next year, or at least later than
we planned."

Launched in September 2007, Dawn will leave Vesta to encounter the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015. Vesta
and Ceres are the most massive objects in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists study
these celestial bodies as examples of the building blocks of terrestrial planets like Earth. Dawn is
approximately 216 million kilometers (134 million miles) away from Vesta. Next summer, the spacecraft will
make its own measurements of Vesta's rotating surface and allow mission managers to pin down its axis of
spin.

"Vesta was discovered just over 200 years ago, and we are excited now to be on the threshold of exploring
it from orbit," said Bob Mase, Dawn's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif. "We planned this mission to accommodate our imprecise knowledge of Vesta. Ours is a journey of
discovery and, with our ability to adapt, we are looking forward to collecting excellent science data at our
target."

The Dawn mission is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. Orbital Sciences
Corporation of Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft. Several international space organizations are
part of the mission team.

To see the Vesta images and video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/vestavid20101008.html .

To learn more about Dawn and its mission to the asteroid belt, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn or
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Cassini Catches Saturn Moons in Paintball Fight

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
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Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2010-328 Oct. 7, 2010

Cassini Catches Saturn Moons in Paintball Fight

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-328&cid=release_2010-328

PASADENA, Calif. – Scientists using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have learned that
distinctive, colorful bands and splotches embellish the surfaces of Saturn's inner, mid-size moons. The
reddish and bluish hues on the icy surfaces of Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione and Rhea appear to
be the aftermath of bombardments large and small.

A paper based on the findings was recently published online in the journal Icarus. In it, scientists
describe prominent global patterns that trace the trade routes for material exchange between the
moons themselves, an outer ring of Saturn known as the E ring and the planet's magnetic
environment. The finding may explain the mysterious Pac-Man thermal pattern on Mimas, found
earlier this year by Cassini scientists, said lead author Paul Schenk, who was funded by a Cassini data
analysis program grant and is based at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston.

"The beauty of it all is how the satellites behave as a family, recording similar processes and events on
their surfaces, each in its own unique way," Schenk said. "I don't think anyone expected that
electrons would leave such obvious fingerprints on planetary surfaces, but we see it on several moons,
including Mimas, which was once thought to be rather bland."

Schenk and colleagues processed raw images obtained by Cassini's imaging cameras from 2004 to
2009 to produce new, high-resolution global color maps of these five moons. The new maps used
camera frames shot through visible-light, ultraviolet and infrared filters which were processed to
enhance our views of these moons beyond what could be seen by the human eye.

The new images are available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

"The richness of the Cassini data set – visible images, infrared images, ultraviolet images,
measurements of the radiation belts – is such that we can finally 'paint a picture' as to how the
satellites themselves are 'painted,'" said William B. McKinnon, one of six co-authors on the paper.
McKinnon is based at Washington University in St. Louis and was also funded by the Cassini data
analysis program.

Icy material sprayed by Enceladus, which makes up the misty E ring, appears to leave a brighter, blue
signature. The pattern of bluish material on Enceladus, for example, indicates that the moon is
covered by the fallback of its own "breath."

Enceladean spray also appears to splatter the parts of Tethys, Dione and Rhea that run into the spray
head-on in their orbits around Saturn. But scientists are still puzzling over why the Enceladean frost
on the leading hemisphere of these moons bears a coral-colored, rather than bluish, tint.

On Tethys, Dione and Rhea, darker, rust-colored, reddish hues paint the entire trailing hemisphere, or
the side that faces backward in the orbit around Saturn. The reddish hues are thought to be caused by
tiny particle strikes from circulating plasma, a gas-like state of matter so hot that atoms split into an
ion and an electron, in Saturn's magnetic environment. Tiny, iron-rich "nanoparticles" may also be
involved, based on earlier analyses by the Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team.

Mimas is also touched by the tint of Enceladean spray, but it appears on the trailing side of Mimas.
This probably occurs because it orbits inside the path of Enceladus, or closer to Saturn, than Tethys,
Dione and Rhea.

In addition, Mimas and Tethys sport a dark, bluish band. The bands match patterns one might expect
if the surface were being irradiated by high-energy electrons that drift in a direction opposite to the
flow of plasma in the magnetic bubble around Saturn. Scientists are still figuring out exactly what is
happening, but the electrons appear to be zapping the Mimas surface in a way that matches the Pac-
Man thermal pattern detected by Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer, Schenk said.

Schenk and colleagues also found a unique chain of bluish splotches along the equator of Rhea that
re-open the question of whether Rhea ever had a ring around it. The splotches do not seem related to
Enceladus, but rather appear where fresh, bluish ice has been exposed on older crater rims. Though
Cassini imaging scientists recently reported that they did not see evidence in Cassini images of a ring
around Rhea, the authors of this paper suggest the crash of orbiting material, perhaps a ring, to the
surface of Rhea in the not-too-distant past could explain the bluish splotches.

"Analyzing the image color ratios is a great way to really enhance the otherwise subtle color variations
and make apparent some of the processes at play in the Saturn system," said Amanda Hendrix,
Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The Cassini
images highlight the importance and potential effects of so-called 'space weathering' that occurs
throughout the solar system – on any surface that isn't protected by a thick atmosphere or magnetic
field."

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 imaging operations center
is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

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NASA Partnership Sends Earth Science Data to Africa

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: 2010-325 Oct. 6, 2010

NASA Partnership Sends Earth Science Data to Africa

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-325&cid=release_2010-325

PASADENA, Calif. – A unique partnership between NASA and agencies in Africa and Europe has
sent more than 30 terabytes of free Earth science satellite data to South African researchers to support
sustainable development and environmental applications in Africa.

The data from one of the instruments on NASA's Terra satellite provide observations of Africa's
surface and atmosphere, including vegetation structure, airborne pollution particles, cloud heights and
winds. Transfer of these data to a distribution center in Africa will make it broadly accessible to
African users who have not been able to remotely download the large data files because of limitations
in the continent's Internet infrastructure.

The data are from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on Terra. NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., built and manages the instrument, and NASA's Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Va., processes, archives and distributes the data.

MISR has been making continuous measurements of Earth's surface and atmosphere for more than a
decade. MISR observes the sunlit portion of Earth continuously, viewing the entire globe between 82
degrees north and 82 degrees south latitude every nine days. Instead of viewing Earth from a single
perspective, the instrument collects images from nine widely spaced view angles.

"NASA is committed to helping governments, organizations and researchers around the world make
effective use of Earth observation data to aid in environmental decision making," said Hal Maring, a
program manager in the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "These efforts support the goals of the Group on Earth Observations, a
partnership of international agencies that promotes collaborative use of Earth science data."

South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria will distribute the
data at no charge to the research community in the region. CSIR will facilitate access to the large
volume of MISR data as part of its broad strategy of educating, training and transferring knowledge
to the southern African research community.

"The data transfer can be seen as a birthday present from NASA to the newly-formed South African
National Space Agency," said Bob Scholes, CSIR research group leader for ecosystem processes and
dynamics. "It will kick-start a new generation of high-quality land surface products, with applications
in climate change and avoiding desertification." Desertification is the gradual transformation of
habitable land into desert due to climate change or destructive land use practices.

The partnership began in spring 2008, when MISR science team member Michel Verstraete of the
European Commission Joint Research Centre Institute for Environment and Sustainability (JRC-IES)
in Ispra, Italy, participated in an intensive CSIR field campaign to study the environment around
Kruger National Park, a major wildlife reserve in South Africa. The researchers studied the area using
direct, airborne and space-based measurements. During the campaign, Verstraete learned of the
widespread interest by the South African research community in remote-sensing techniques and
applications.

In response, JRC-IES and CSIR signed an agreement in July 2008 to facilitate the interaction and
exchange of people, knowledge, data and software.

NASA became involved in the collaboration in 2009 after a training workshop for MISR users in
Cape Town, South Africa, organized by JPL and Langley Research Center. Although the workshop
sparked interest in the potential use of MISR data, it soon became apparent that accessing a large
volume of data was a major hurdle for research and applications in developing countries in general
and Africa in particular. While Internet connectivity in Africa has improved greatly in recent years,
access and bandwidth remain too limited to support downloading vast data files. This led CSIR to
host the data directly.

NASA shipped most of the data on high-density tapes this summer. The agencies will ensure the
database stays updated with current MISR observations by upgrading connectivity and facilitating
sharing of data among participating academic and research institutions.

"This multi-party collaboration will significantly strengthen academic and research institutions in
southern Africa and support sustainable development of the entire subcontinent," said Verstraete,
who will spend six months in southern Africa next year to help the regional remote-sensing
community use the data.

For more information on MISR, visit: http://misr.jpl.nasa.gov .

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

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WISE Captures Key Images of Comet Mission's Destination

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

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

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

News release: 2010-324 Oct. 5, 2010

WISE Captures Key Images of Comet Mission's Destination

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-324&cid=release_2010-324

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, caught a glimpse of
the comet that the agency's EPOXI mission will visit in November. The WISE observation will help
the EPOXI team put together a large-scale picture of the comet, known as Hartley 2.

"WISE's infrared vision provides data that complement what EPOXI will see with its visible-light
and near-infrared instruments," said James Bauer, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
Calif. "It's as if WISE can see an entire country, and EPOXI will visit its capital."

WISE's infrared vision will allow the telescope to get a new estimate of the size of the comet's
nucleus, or core, as well as a more thorough look at the sizes of dust particles that surround it. This
information, when combined with what EPOXI finds as it gets closer to Hartley 2, will reveal how
the comet has changed over time.

The WISE image is available at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/gallery/pia13438.html .

On Nov. 4, the EPOXI mission, which uses the already "in flight" Deep Impact flyby spacecraft, will
reach its closet approach to Hartley 2. The spacecraft will examine the dusty, icy body in detail as it
flies by, providing the best, extended view of a comet in history. WISE and several other ground-
and space-based telescopes are participating in the viewing, working together to tackle mysteries
about our solar system's origins that are frozen inside comets.

For stargazers, opportunities to view the comet are possible throughout October. On Wednesday, Oct.
20, Hartley 2 will reach its closest approach to Earth since it was discovered in 1986. The comet will
be approximately 17.7 million kilometers away (11 million miles) and should be visible with the naked
eye near the constellation Perseus if viewed in dark skies. Observers will need binoculars or telescopes
from urban areas in the Northern Hemisphere. Southern Hemisphere stargazers will be able to see the
comet later in the month.

WISE captured its view of the comet during an ongoing scan of the sky in infrared light. The mission
has been busy cataloging hundreds of millions of objects, from comets to distant, powerful galaxies.
In late September, it used up its frozen cryogen coolant as expected and began a new phase of its
survey. Called the NEOWISE Post-Cryogenic Mission, it primarily focuses on finding additional
asteroids and comets. To date, the WISE mission has observed more than 150,000 asteroids and 110
comets, including Hartley 2.

"Astronomers can reference our catalogue to get detailed infrared data about their favorite asteroid or
comet," said Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of NEOWISE at JPL. "Space missions can also
use our observations for more information on their targets, as EPOXI is doing."

WISE's view of Hartley 2 was taken on May 10, 2010. It gives astronomers a unique look at the
comet, complementing what other telescopes can see. Because WISE scanned the whole sky, it
captured the most extensive view of Hartley 2's trail, the dusty path left by the comet on its repeated
journey around the sun.

Bauer said, "We want to know how the comet behaves as it comes toward the sun and out of deep
freeze. The WISE image is one critical puzzle piece of many that will give a comprehensive view of
the behavior of the comet through the time of the encounter."

The comet started to show signs of activity in the spring, spitting out gas and dust. By July, there
were clear jets of gas. "Comparing the dust early on to what we see later with EPOXI helps us
understand how the activity started on Hartley 2," said Michael A'Hearn, the principal investigator of
EPOXI at the University of Maryland in College Park.

The term EPOXI is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: the
Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the Hartley 2 flyby, called the
Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI). The name NEOWISE comes from combining WISE
and the acronym for near-Earth object, NEO.

More information about EPOXI is at: http://www.nasa.gov/epoxi and http://epoxi.umd.edu/ .

More information about WISE is at: http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu/ .

JPL, a division of the California Institute, manages WISE and EPOXI for NASA.

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NASA's WISE Mission Warms up but Keeps Chugging Along

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
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News release: 2010-320 Oct. 4, 2010

NASA's WISE Mission Warms up but Keeps Chugging Along

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-320&cid=release_2010-320

PASADENA, Calif. -- After completing its primary mission to map the infrared sky, NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has reached the expected end of its onboard supply of frozen coolant. Although WISE has 'warmed up,' NASA has decided the mission will still continue. WISE will now focus on our nearest neighbors -- the asteroids and comets traveling together with our solar system's planets around the sun.

"Two of our four infrared detectors still work even at warmer temperatures, so we can use those bands to continue our hunt for asteroids and comets," said Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Mainzer is the principal investigator of the new phase of the mission, now known as the NEOWISE Post-Cryogenic Mission. It takes its name from the acronym for a near-Earth object, NEO, and WISE. A cryogen is a coolant used to make the detectors more sensitive. In the case of WISE, the cryogen was frozen hydrogen.

WISE launched Dec. 14, 2009, from Vandenberg Air Force Station in California aboard a Delta II launch vehicle. Its 40-centimeter (16-inch) infrared telescope scans the skies from an Earth-circling orbit crossing the poles. It has already snapped more than 1.8 million pictures at four infrared wavelengths. Currently, the survey has covered the sky about one-and-one-half times, producing a vast catalogue containing hundreds of millions of objects, from near-Earth asteroids to cool stars called "brown dwarfs," to distant, luminous galaxies.

To date, WISE has discovered 19 comets and more than 33,500 asteroids, including 120 near-Earth objects, which are those bodies with orbits that pass relatively close to Earth's path around the sun. More discoveries regarding objects outside our solar system, such as the brown dwarfs and luminous galaxies, are expected.

"The science data collected by WISE will be used by the scientific community for decades," said Jaya Bajpayee, the WISE program executive in the Astrophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "It will also provide a sky map for future observatories like NASA's James Webb Space Telescope."

The NEOWISE Post-Cryogenic Mission is designed to complete the survey of the solar system and finish the second survey of the rest of the sky at its new warmer temperature of about minus 203 degrees Celsius (minus 334 degrees Fahrenheit) using its two shortest-wavelength detectors. The survey extension will last one to four months, depending on early results.

NEOWISE will also keep observing other targets, such as the closest brown dwarfs to the sun. In addition, data from the second sky scan will help identify objects that have moved in the sky since they were first detected by WISE. This allows astronomers to pick out the brown dwarfs closest to our sun. The closer the object is, the more it will appear to move from our point of view.

The WISE science team now is analyzing millions of objects captured in the images, including many never seen before. A first batch of WISE data, covering more than half the sky, will be released to the astronomical community in spring 2011, with the rest to follow about one year later.

"WISE has provided a guidebook to the universe with thousands of targets worth viewing with a large telescope," said Edward (Ned) Wright, WISE principal investigator from UCLA. "We're working on figuring out just how far away the brown dwarfs are, and how luminous the galaxies are."

A gallery of WISE images is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/multimedia/gallery/gallery-index.html .

JPL manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for the Science Mission Directorate. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu .



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

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


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