First of NASA's Grail Spacecraft Enters Moon Orbit

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

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

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

Caroline McCall 617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
cmcall5@mit.edu

News release: 2011-398 December 31, 2011

First of NASA's Grail Spacecraft Enters Moon Orbit

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-398&cid=release_2011-398

PASADENA, Calif. – The first of two NASA spacecraft to study the moon in unprecedented detail
has entered lunar orbit.

NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A spacecraft successfully completed
its planned main engine burn at 2 p.m. PST (5 p.m. EST) today. As of 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. EST),
GRAIL-A is in an orbit of 56 miles by 5,197 miles (90 kilometers by 8,363 kilometers) around the
moon that takes approximately 11.5 hours to complete.

"My resolution for the new year is to unlock lunar mysteries and understand how the moon, Earth and
other rocky planets evolved," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL principal investigator at the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Now, with GRAIL-A successfully placed in orbit around the
moon, we are one step closer to achieving that goal."

The next mission milestone occurs tomorrow when GRAIL-A's mirror twin, GRAIL-B, performs its
own main engine burn to place it in lunar orbit. At 3 p.m. PST (6 p.m. EST) today, GRAIL-B was
30,018 miles (48,309 kilometers) from the moon and closing at a rate of 896 mph (1,442 kilometers
per hour). GRAIL-B's insertion burn is scheduled to begin tomorrow, Jan. 1, at 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05
p.m. EST) and will last about 39 minutes.

"With GRAIL-A in lunar orbit we are halfway home," said David Lehman, GRAIL project manager
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Tomorrow may be New Year's everywhere
else, but it's another work day around the moon and here at JPL for the GRAIL team."

Once both spacecraft are confirmed in orbit and operating, science work will begin in March. The
spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the distance between them as they orbit the
moon in formation. As they fly over areas of greater and lesser gravity caused by both visible
features, such as mountains and craters, and masses hidden beneath the lunar surface, the distance
between the two spacecraft will change slightly.

Scientists will translate this information into a high-resolution map of the moon's gravitational field.
The data will allow scientists to understand what goes on below the lunar surface. This information
will increase knowledge of how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed
into the diverse worlds we see today.

JPL manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's
headquarters in Washington. The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver
built the spacecraft.

For more information about GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail .

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NASA's GRAIL-A Spacecraft 24 Hours Away From Moon

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

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

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

Caroline McCall 617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
cmcall5@mit.edu

News release: 2011-397 December 30, 2011

NASA's GRAIL-A Spacecraft 24 Hours Away From Moon

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-397&cid=release_2011-397

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A spacecraft is within
24 hours of its insertion burn that will place it into lunar orbit. At the time the spacecraft crossed the
milestone at 1:21 p.m. PST today (4:21 p.m. EST), the spacecraft was 30,758 miles (49,500
kilometers) from the moon.

Launched aboard the same rocket on Sept. 10, 2011, GRAIL-A's mirror twin, GRAIL-B, is also
closing the gap between itself and the moon. GRAIL-B is scheduled to perform its lunar orbit insertion
burn on New Year's Day (Jan. 1) at 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST).

As they close in on the moon, both orbiters move toward the moon from the south, flying nearly directly
over the lunar south pole. The lunar orbit insertion burn for GRAIL-A will take approximately 40
minutes to complete and change the spacecraft's velocity by about 427 mph (687 kph). GRAIL-B's
insertion burn – occurring 25 hours later -- will last about 39 minutes and is expected to change its
velocity by 430 mph (692 kph).

The insertion maneuvers will place each orbiter into a near-polar, elliptical orbit with an orbital period of
11.5 hours. Over the following weeks, the GRAIL team will execute a series of burns with each
spacecraft to reduce their period down to just under two hours. At the start of the science phase in
March 2012, the two GRAILs will be in a near-polar, near-circular orbit with an altitude of about 34
miles (55 kilometers).

During the science phase, the moon will rotate three times underneath the GRAIL orbit. The collection
of gravity data over one complete rotation (27.3 days) is referred to as a Mapping Cycle. When science
collection begins, the spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the distance between them
as they orbit the moon in formation. Regional gravitational differences on the moon are expected to
expand and contract that distance. GRAIL scientists will use these accurate measurements to define the
moon's gravity field. The data will allow mission scientists to understand what goes on below the surface
of our natural satellite. This information will help us learn more about how the moon, Earth and other
terrestrial planets formed.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission. The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Maria Zuber. The
GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about GRAIL is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/grail and http://grail.nasa.gov .

The GRAIL press kit can be found online at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/graiLaunch.pdf .

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NASA Twin Spacecraft on Final Approach for Moon Orbit

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

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

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

Caroline McCall 617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
cmcall5@mit.edu

News release: 2011-396 December 29, 2011

NASA Twin Spacecraft on Final Approach for Moon Orbit

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-396&cid=release_2011-396

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's twin spacecraft to study the moon from crust to core are nearing their
New Year's Eve and New Year's Day main-engine burns to place the duo in lunar orbit.

Named Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), the spacecraft are scheduled to be
placed in orbit beginning at 1:21 p.m. PST (4:21 p.m. EST) for GRAIL-A on Dec. 31, and 2:05 p.m.
PST (5:05 p.m. EST) for GRAIL-B the next day.

"Our team may not get to partake in a traditional New Year's celebration, but I expect seeing our two
spacecraft safely in lunar orbit should give us all the excitement and feeling of euphoria anyone in
this line of work would ever need," said David Lehman, project manager for GRAIL from NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The distance from Earth to the moon is approximately 250,000 miles (402,336 kilometers). NASA's
Apollo crews took about three days to travel to the moon. Launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station Sept. 10, 2011, the GRAIL spacecraft are taking about 30 times that long and covering more
than 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) to get there.

This low-energy, long-duration trajectory has given mission planners and controllers more time to
assess the spacecraft's health. The path also allowed a vital component of the spacecraft's single
science instrument, the Ultra Stable Oscillator, to be continuously powered for several months. That
allowed it to reach a stable operating temperature long before science measurements from lunar orbit
are to begin.

"This mission will rewrite the textbooks on the evolution of the moon," said Maria Zuber, GRAIL
principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. "Our two
spacecraft are operating so well during their journey that we have performed a full test of our science
instrument and confirmed the performance required to meet our science objectives".

As of Dec. 28, GRAIL-A is 65,860 miles (106,000 kilometers) from the moon and closing at a speed
of 745 miles per hour (1,200 kilometers per hour). GRAIL-B is 79,540 miles (128,000 kilometers)
from the moon and closing at a speed of 763 mph (1,228 kilometers per hour).

During their final approaches to the moon, both orbiters move toward it from the south, flying nearly
directly over the lunar south pole. The lunar orbit insertion burn for GRAIL-A will take
approximately 40 minutes and change the spacecraft's velocity by about 427 mph (688 kilometers per
hour). GRAIL-B's insertion burn 25 hours later will last about 39 minutes and is expected to change
the probe's velocity by 430 mph (691 kilometers per hour).

The insertion maneuvers will place each orbiter into a near-polar, elliptical orbit with a period of 11.5
hours. Over the following weeks, the GRAIL team will execute a series of burns with each spacecraft
to reduce their orbital period from 11.5 hours down to just under two hours. At the start of the science
phase in March 2012, the two GRAILs will be in a near-polar, near-circular orbit with an altitude of
about 34 miles (55 kilometers).

When science collection begins, the spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the
distance between them as they orbit the moon. As they fly over areas of greater and lesser gravity,
caused both by visible features such as mountains and craters and by masses hidden beneath the lunar
surface. they will move slightly toward and away from each other. An instrument aboard each
spacecraft will measure the changes in their relative velocity very precisely, and scientists will
translate this information into a high-resolution map of the moon's gravitational field. The data will
allow mission scientists to understand what goes on below the surface. This information will increase
our knowledge of how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the inner solar system developed into the
diverse worlds we see today.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission. The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home to the mission's principal investigator,
Maria Zuber. The GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft.
JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about GRAIL is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/grail and http://grail.nasa.gov .

The GRAIL press kit can be found online at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/graiLaunch.pdf .

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NASA to Host Media Telecon on Probes' Moon Orbit Insertion

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

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

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

Caroline McCall 617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Cmccall5@mit.edu

Advisory: 2011-395b December 23, 2011

NASA to Host Media Telecon on Probes' Moon Orbit Insertion

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-395b&cid=release_2011-395b

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will hold a media teleconference at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST) on
Wednesday, Dec. 28, to preview twin spacecraft being placed in orbit around the moon on New Year's
Eve and New Year's Day.

NASA's twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) probes were launched from
Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Sept. 10, 2011. GRAIL-A is scheduled to arrive in lunar orbit
beginning at 1:21 p.m. PST (4:21 p.m. EST) on Saturday, Dec. 31, and GRAIL-B on Sunday, Jan. 1,
beginning at 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST). After confirmation they are in orbit and operating
nominally, the two solar-powered spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits to answer longstanding questions
about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the
solar system formed.

Participants are:
- Maria Zuber, principal investigator, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
- David Lehman, project manager, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Audio of the teleconference will be streamed at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio .
Supporting images will be available 15 minutes prior to the telecon at: http://1.usa.gov/grailnews

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission. The Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Maria Zuber. The
GRAIL mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about GRAIL visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail .

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NASA's Cassini Delivers Holiday Treats From Saturn

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

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

Joe Mason 720-974-5859
Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.
media@ciclops.org

Image advisory: 2011-393 Dec. 22, 2011

NASA's Cassini Delivers Holiday Treats From Saturn

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-393&cid=release_2011-393

PASADENA, Calif. -- No team of reindeer, but radio signals flying clear across the solar system from
NASA's Cassini spacecraft have delivered a holiday package of glorious images. The pictures, from
Cassini's imaging team, show Saturn's largest, most colorful ornament, Titan, and other icy baubles in
orbit around this splendid planet.

The release includes images of satellite conjunctions in which one moon passes in front of or behind
another. Cassini scientists regularly make these observations to study the ever-changing orbits of the
planet's moons. But even in these routine images, the Saturnian system shines. A few of Saturn's stark,
airless, icy moons appear to dangle next to the orange orb of Titan, the only moon in the solar system
with a substantial atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere is of great interest because of its similarities to the
atmosphere believed to exist long ago on the early Earth.

The images are online at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini , http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and
http://ciclops.org .

While it may be wintry in Earth's northern hemisphere, it is currently northern spring in the Saturnian
system and it will remain so for several Earth years. Current plans to extend the Cassini mission
through 2017 will supply a continued bounty of scientifically rewarding and majestic views of Saturn
and its moons and rings, as spectators are treated to the passage of northern spring and the arrival of
summer in May 2017.

"As another year traveling this magnificent sector of our solar system draws to a close, all of us on
Cassini wish all of you a very happy and peaceful holiday season, " said Carolyn Porco, Cassini
imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

More information about Cassini mission is online at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the
Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed
and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

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NASA Telescopes Help Find Rare Galaxy at Dawn of Time

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

Feature: 2011-392 Dec. 21, 2011

NASA Telescopes Help Find Rare Galaxy at Dawn of Time

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-392&cid=release_2011-392

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have discovered that one of the
most distant galaxies known is churning out stars at a shockingly high rate. The blob-shaped galaxy,
called GN-108036, is the brightest galaxy found to date at such great distances.

The galaxy, which was discovered and confirmed using ground-based telescopes, is 12.9 billion
light-years away. Data from Spitzer and Hubble were used to measure the galaxy's high star
production rate, equivalent to about 100 suns per year. For reference, our Milky Way galaxy is about
five times larger and 100 times more massive than GN-108036, but makes roughly 30 times fewer
stars per year.

"The discovery is surprising because previous surveys had not found galaxies this bright so early in
the history of the universe," said Mark Dickinson of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in
Tucson, Ariz. "Perhaps those surveys were just too small to find galaxies like GN-108036. It may
be a special, rare object that we just happened to catch during an extreme burst of star formation."

The international team of astronomers, led by Masami Ouchi of the University of Tokyo, Japan, first
identified the remote galaxy after scanning a large patch of sky with the Subaru Telescope atop
Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Its great distance was then carefully confirmed with the W.M. Keck
Observatory, also on Mauna Kea.

"We checked our results on three different occasions over two years, and each time confirmed the
previous measurement," said Yoshiaki Ono of the University of Tokyo, lead author of a new paper
reporting the findings in the Astrophysical Journal.

GN-108036 lies near the very beginning of time itself, a mere 750 million years after our universe
was created 13.7 billion years ago in an explosive "Big Bang." Its light has taken 12.9 billion years
to reach us, so we are seeing it as it existed in the very distant past.

Astronomers refer to the object's distance by a number called its "redshift," which relates to how
much its light has stretched to longer, redder wavelengths due to the expansion of the universe.
Objects with larger redshifts are farther away and are seen further back in time. GN-108036 has a
redshift of 7.2. Only a handful of galaxies have confirmed redshifts greater than 7, and only two of
these have been reported to be more distant than GN-108036.

Infrared observations from Spitzer and Hubble were crucial for measuring the galaxy's star-
formation activity. Astronomers were surprised to see such a large burst of star formation because
the galaxy is so small and from such an early cosmic era. Back when galaxies were first forming, in
the first few hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, they were much smaller than they are
today, having yet to bulk up in mass.

During this epoch, as the universe expanded and cooled after its explosive start, hydrogen atoms
permeating the cosmos formed a thick fog that was opaque to ultraviolet light. This period, before
the first stars and galaxies had formed and illuminated the universe, is referred to as the "dark
ages." The era came to an end when light from the earliest galaxies burned through, or "ionized," the
opaque gas, causing it to become transparent. Galaxies similar to GN-108036 may have played an
important role in this event.

"The high rate of star formation found for GN-108036 implies that it was rapidly building up its
mass some 750 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only about five percent of
its present age," said Bahram Mobasher, a team member from the University of California,
Riverside. "This was therefore a likely ancestor of massive and evolved galaxies seen today."

Other authors include: Kyle Penner and Benjamin J. Weiner of the University of Arizona, Tucson;
Kazuhiro Shimasaku and Kimihiko Nakajima of the University of Tokyo; Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe of
the National Optical Astronomy Observatory; Hooshang Nayyeri of the University of California,
Riverside; Daniel Stern of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Nobunari
Kashikawa of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; and Hyron Spinrad of University of
California, Berkeley.

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 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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Dawn Obtains First Low Altitude Images of Vesta

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

Image advisory: 2011-391 Dec. 21, 2011

Dawn Obtains First Low Altitude Images of Vesta

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-391&cid=release_2011-391

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Dawn spacecraft has sent back the first images of the
giant asteroid Vesta from its low-altitude mapping orbit. The images, obtained by the
framing camera, show the stippled and lumpy surface in detail never seen before, piquing
the curiosity of scientists who are studying Vesta for clues about the solar system's early
history.

At this detailed resolution, the surface shows abundant small craters, and textures such as
small grooves and lineaments that are reminiscent of the structures seen in low-resolution
data from the higher-altitude orbits. Also, this fine scale highlights small outcrops of
bright and dark material.

A gallery of images can be found online at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/gallery-index.html .

The images were returned to Earth on Dec. 13. Dawn scientists plan to acquire data in
the low-altitude mapping orbit for at least 10 weeks. The primary science objectives in
this orbit are to learn about the elemental composition of Vesta's surface with the gamma
ray and neutron detector and to probe the interior structure of the asteroid by measuring
the gravity field.

The Dawn mission to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena,
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Dawn is a project of the
directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn
Framing Cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck
Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant
contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin,
and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network
Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by the Max Planck
Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.

More information about the Dawn mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .
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NASA Discovers First Earth-Size Planets Beyond Our Solar System

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

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

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

Michele Johnson 650-604-6982
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
michele.johnson@nasa.gov

News release: 2011-390 December 20, 2011

NASA Discovers First Earth-Size Planets Beyond Our Solar System

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-390&cid=release_2011-390

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a
sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close
to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface,
but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun.

The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The
new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87
times the radius of Earth. Kepler-20f is slightly larger than Earth, measuring 1.03 times its radius.
Both planets reside in a five-planet system called Kepler-20, approximately 1,000 light-years away
in the constellation Lyra.

Kepler-20e orbits its parent star every 6.1 days and Kepler-20f every 19.6 days. These short orbital
periods mean very hot, inhospitable worlds. Kepler-20f, at 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees
Celsius), is similar to an average day on the planet Mercury. The surface temperature of Kepler-20e,
at more than 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit (760 degrees Celsius), would melt glass.

"The primary goal of the Kepler mission is to find Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone," said
Francois Fressin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., lead
author of a new study published in the journal Nature. "This discovery demonstrates for the first
time that Earth-size planets exist around other stars, and that we are able to detect them."

The Kepler-20 system includes three other planets that are larger than Earth but smaller than
Neptune. Kepler-20b, the closest planet, Kepler-20c, the third planet, and Kepler-20d, the fifth
planet, orbit their star every 3.7, 10.9 and 77.6 days, respectively. All five planets have orbits lying
roughly within Mercury's orbit in our solar system. The host star belongs to the same G-type class as
our sun, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.

The system has an unexpected arrangement. In our solar system, small, rocky worlds orbit close to
the sun and large, gaseous worlds orbit farther out. In comparison, the planets of Kepler-20 are
organized in alternating size: large, small, large, small and large.

"The Kepler data are showing us some planetary systems have arrangements of planets very
different from that seen in our solar system," said Jack Lissauer, planetary scientist and Kepler
science team member at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "The analysis of
Kepler data continues to reveal new insights about the diversity of planets and planetary systems
within our galaxy."

Scientists are not certain how the system evolved, but they do not think the planets formed in their
existing locations. They theorize the planets formed farther from their star and then migrated inward,
likely through interactions with the disk of material from which they originated. This allowed the
worlds to maintain their regular spacing despite alternating sizes.

The Kepler space telescope detects planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness
of more than 150,000 stars to search for planets crossing in front of, or transiting, their stars. The
Kepler science team requires at least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.

The Kepler science team uses ground-based telescopes and the Spitzer Space Telescope to review
observations on planet candidates the Kepler spacecraft finds. The star field Kepler observes in the
constellations Cygnus and Lyra can be seen only from ground-based observatories in spring through
early fall. The data from these other observations help determine which candidates can be validated
as planets.

To validate Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, astronomers used a computer program called Blender, which
runs simulations to help rule out other astrophysical phenomena masquerading as a planet.

On Dec. 5, the team announced the discovery of Kepler-22b in the habitable zone of its parent star.
It is likely to be too large to have a rocky surface. While Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f are Earth-size,
they are too close to their parent star to have liquid water on the surface.

"In the cosmic game of hide and seek, finding planets with just the right size and just the right
temperature seems only a matter of time," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead and
professor of astronomy and physics at San Jose State University. "We are on the edge of our seats
knowing that Kepler's most anticipated discoveries are still to come."

NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., manages Kepler's ground system
development, mission operations and science data analysis. JPL managed the Kepler mission's
development.

For more information about the Kepler mission and to view the digital press kit, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/kepler .

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NASA: Climate Change May Bring Big Ecosystem Changes

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: 2011-387 Dec. 14, 2011

NASA: Climate Change May Bring Big Ecosystem Changes

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-387&cid=release_2011-387

PASADENA, Calif. – By 2100, global climate change will modify plant communities covering
almost half of Earth's land surface and will drive the conversion of nearly 40 percent of land-based
ecosystems from one major ecological community type – such as forest, grassland or tundra – toward
another, according to a new NASA and university computer modeling study.

Researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, Calif., investigated how Earth's plant life is likely to react over the next three centuries as
Earth's climate changes in response to rising levels of human-produced greenhouse gases. Study
results are published in the journal Climatic Change.

The model projections paint a portrait of increasing ecological change and stress in Earth's biosphere,
with many plant and animal species facing increasing competition for survival, as well as significant
species turnover, as some species invade areas occupied by other species. Most of Earth's land that is
not covered by ice or desert is projected to undergo at least a 30 percent change in plant cover –
changes that will require humans and animals to adapt and often relocate.

In addition to altering plant communities, the study predicts climate change will disrupt the
ecological balance between interdependent and often endangered plant and animal species, reduce
biodiversity and adversely affect Earth's water, energy, carbon and other element cycles.

"For more than 25 years, scientists have warned of the dangers of human-induced climate change,"
said Jon Bergengren, a scientist who led the study while a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech. "Our study
introduces a new view of climate change, exploring the ecological implications of a few degrees of
global warming. While warnings of melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other environmental
changes are illustrative and important, ultimately, it's the ecological consequences that matter most."

When faced with climate change, plant species often must "migrate" over multiple generations, as
they can only survive, compete and reproduce within the range of climates to which they are
evolutionarily and physiologically adapted. While Earth's plants and animals have evolved to migrate
in response to seasonal environmental changes and to even larger transitions, such as the end of the
last ice age, they often are not equipped to keep up with the rapidity of modern climate changes that
are currently taking place. Human activities, such as agriculture and urbanization, are increasingly
destroying Earth's natural habitats, and frequently block plants and animals from successfully
migrating.

To study the sensitivity of Earth's ecological systems to climate change, the scientists used a
computer model that predicts the type of plant community that is uniquely adapted to any climate on
Earth. This model was used to simulate the future state of Earth's natural vegetation in harmony with
climate projections from 10 different global climate simulations. These simulations are based on the
intermediate greenhouse gas scenario in the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change Fourth Assessment Report. That scenario assumes greenhouse gas levels will double by 2100
and then level off. The U.N. report's climate simulations predict a warmer and wetter Earth, with
global temperature increases of 3.6 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit (2 to 4 degrees Celsius) by 2100, about
the same warming that occurred following the Last Glacial Maximum almost 20,000 years ago,
except about 100 times faster. Under the scenario, some regions become wetter because of enhanced
evaporation, while others become drier due to changes in atmospheric circulation.

The researchers found a shift of biomes, or major ecological community types, toward Earth's poles –
most dramatically in temperate grasslands and boreal forests – and toward higher elevations.
Ecologically sensitive "hotspots" – areas projected to undergo the greatest degree of species turnover
– that were identified by the study include regions in the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, eastern
equatorial Africa, Madagascar, the Mediterranean region, southern South America, and North
America's Great Lakes and Great Plains areas. The largest areas of ecological sensitivity and biome
changes predicted for this century are, not surprisingly, found in areas with the most dramatic climate
change: in the Northern Hemisphere high latitudes, particularly along the northern and southern
boundaries of boreal forests.

"Our study developed a simple, consistent and quantitative way to characterize the impacts of climate
change on ecosystems, while assessing and comparing the implications of climate model
projections," said JPL co-author Duane Waliser. "This new tool enables scientists to explore and
understand interrelationships between Earth's ecosystems and climate and to identify regions
projected to have the greatest degree of ecological sensitivity."

"In this study, we have developed and applied two new ecological sensitivity metrics – analogs of
climate sensitivity – to investigate the potential degree of plant community changes over the next
three centuries," said Bergengren. "The surprising degree of ecological sensitivity of Earth's
ecosystems predicted by our research highlights the global imperative to accelerate progress toward
preserving biodiversity by stabilizing Earth's climate."

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

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NASA Mars-Bound Rover Begins Research in Space

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

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

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

News release: 2011-386 Dec. 13, 2011

NASA Mars-Bound Rover Begins Research in Space

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-386&cid=release_2011-386

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's car-sized Curiosity rover has begun monitoring space radiation during
its 8-month trip from Earth to Mars. The research will aid in planning for future human missions to
the Red Planet.

Curiosity launched on Nov. 26 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard the Mars Science Laboratory. The
rover carries an instrument called the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) that monitors high-
energy atomic and subatomic particles from the sun, distant supernovas and other sources.

These particles constitute radiation that could be harmful to any microbes or astronauts in space or on
Mars. The rover also will monitor radiation on the surface of Mars after its August 2012 landing.

"RAD is serving as a proxy for an astronaut inside a spacecraft on the way to Mars," said Don
Hassler, RAD's principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "The
instrument is deep inside the spacecraft, the way an astronaut would be. Understanding the effects of
the spacecraft on the radiation field will be valuable in designing craft for astronauts to travel to
Mars."

Previous monitoring of energetic-particle radiation in space has used instruments at or near the
surface of various spacecraft. The RAD instrument is on the rover inside the spacecraft and shielded
by other components of Mars Science Laboratory, including the aeroshell that will protect the rover
during descent through the upper atmosphere of Mars.

Spacecraft structures, while providing shielding, also can contribute to secondary particles generated
when high-energy particles strike the spacecraft. In some circumstances, secondary particles could be
more hazardous than primary ones.

These first measurements mark the start of the science return from a mission that will use 10
instruments on Curiosity to assess whether Mars' Gale Crater could be or has been favorable for
microbial life.

"While Curiosity will not look for signs of life on Mars, what it might find could be a game-changer
about the origin and evolution of life on Earth and elsewhere in the universe," said Doug McCuistion,
director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "One thing is
certain: The rover's discoveries will provide critical data that will impact human and robotic planning
and research for decades."

As of 9 a.m. PST (noon EST) on Dec. 14, the spacecraft will have traveled 31.9 million miles (51.3
million kilometers) of its 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) flight to Mars. The first trajectory
correction maneuver during the trip is being planned for mid-January.

Southwest Research Institute, together with Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Germany, built
RAD with funding from the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, NASA
Headquarters, Washington, and Germany's national aerospace research center, Deutsches Zentrum für
Luft- und Raumfahrt.

The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the agency's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. The mission's rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL, a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Information about the mission is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and at
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

You can follow the mission on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity and on Facebook
at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity .

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NASA's Dawn Spirals Down to Lowest Orbit

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.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2011-384 Dec. 12, 2011

NASA's Dawn Spirals Down to Lowest Orbit

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-384&cid=release_2011-384

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Dawn spacecraft successfully maneuvered into its closest
orbit around the giant asteroid Vesta today, beginning a new phase of science
observations. The spacecraft is now circling Vesta at an altitude averaging about 130
miles (210 kilometers) in the phase of the mission known as low altitude mapping orbit.

"Dawn has performed some complicated and beautiful choreography in order to reach
this lowest orbit," said Marc Rayman, Dawn chief engineer and mission manager based
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We are in an excellent position
to learn much more about the secrets of Vesta's surface and interior."

Launched in 2007, Dawn has been in orbit around Vesta, the second most massive object
in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, since July 15. The team plans to acquire
data in the low orbit for at least 10 weeks.

Dawn's framing camera and visible and infrared mapping spectrometer instruments will
image portions of the surface at greater resolution than obtained at higher altitudes. But
the primary goal of the low orbit is to collect data for the gamma ray and neutron detector
(GRaND) and the gravity experiment. GRaND will be looking for the by-products of
cosmic rays reflected off Vesta to reveal the identities of many kinds of atoms in the
surface of Vesta. The instrument is most effective at this low altitude.

Close proximity to Vesta also enables ultrasensitive measurements of its gravitational
field. These measurements will tell scientists about the way masses are arranged in the
giant asteroid's interior.

"Dawn's visit to Vesta has been eye-opening so far, showing us troughs and peaks that
telescopes only hinted at," said Christopher Russell, Dawn's principal investigator, based
at UCLA. "It whets the appetite for a day when human explorers can see the wonders of
asteroids for themselves."

After the science collection is complete at the low altitude mapping orbit, Dawn will
spiral out and conduct another science campaign at the high altitude mapping orbit
altitude (420 miles, or 680 kilometers), when the sun will have risen higher in the
northern regions. Dawn plans to leave Vesta in July 2012 and arrive at its second
destination, the dwarf planet Ceres, in February 2015.

Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn
mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft.
The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the
Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international
partners on the mission team.

More information about the Dawn mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn .

To follow the mission on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Dawn .

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Join NASA/JPL for the Last Total Lunar Eclipse Until 2014

Join NASA/JPL for the Last Total Lunar Eclipse Until 2014

The last total lunar eclipse until 2014 will grace the sky the morning of Saturday, Dec. 10, reaching totality at about 6 a.m. PST, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory wants you to be there. Not only will the moon be showing off a red-orange glow, but also many viewers in the U.S. and Canada will have the rare chance to see a seemingly impossible sight: the sun and eclipsed moon together!

You can text, tweet, post or snap to join the conversation with NASA/JPL and participate in the "I'm There: Lunar Eclipse 2011" event. It all starts today! Here's how to join the fun:

1. TEXT MESSAGE: Text IMTHERE to 67463 to share your eclipse viewing spot and comments with NASA/JPL, or enter your 10-digit cell phone number in the "Join the Conversation" box at http://1.usa.gov/sqf5op. (Available to users in the U.S., message and data rates may apply). To join the campaign, just text in with the zip code of your viewing location, and see it plotted on the map at http://1.usa.gov/sqf5op. Then, on Saturday morning, you'll receive a reminder to go out and watch plus instructions on how to share your comments via text.

2. TWITTER: Eclipse watchers around the world can participate by including @NASA/JPL and #Eclipse in their tweets, then see their comments displayed in the Twitter stream at http://1.usa.gov/sqf5op. Don't forget to tell us where you're watching the eclipse!

3. FACEBOOK: Join JPL's Total Lunar Eclipse event page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/events/150487628392791/) to share your experiences and upload lunar eclipse photos. After the eclipse, NASA/JPL will pick one lucky winner to have his or her photo featured on JPL's Space Images website and available for download as an official NASA/JPL wallpaper.

4. ONLINE: Visit NASA/JPL's Lunar Eclipse homepage at http://1.usa.gov/sqf5op throughout the weekend to find others who are watching in your area, view comments and updates, check the weather, and explore more resources, including eclipse timetables and related events.

Learn more about where and when to view the lunar eclipse from JPL astronomer Steve Edberg at http://blogs.jpl.nasa.gov/.

Can't see the eclipse from your area? Slooh, the online Space Camera, will broadcast a live feed of the total lunar eclipse from several locations, starting at 6:06 a.m. PST (9:06 a.m. EST). Watch here: http://events.slooh.com/.

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NASA Presents Software of the Year Award

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

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

Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2011-380 December 8, 2011

NASA Presents Software of the Year Award

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-380&cid=release_2011-380

PASADENA, Calif., – Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS), novel
autonomy software that has been operating on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity since
December 2009, is NASA's 2011 Software of the Year recipient.

The AEGIS software, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,
autonomously directs Opportunity's cameras to interesting science targets. AEGIS was developed to
enhance the usual targeting process involving scientists on the ground, which can require the rover
to stay in the same place for a day or more while data are transmitted to Earth and targets are
selected from preliminary images.

With AEGIS, the rover software analyzes images onboard, detects and prioritizes science targets in
those images, and autonomously obtains novel, high-quality science data of the selected targets,
within 45 minutes, with no communication back to Earth required. AEGIS chooses science targets
based on pre-specified criteria set by the mission science team.

AEGIS can be used as soon as the rover reaches a new area and is especially beneficial during and
after long drives. It enables high-quality data to be collected more often and in a significantly
reduced time frame. The incorporation of AEGIS in the Mars Science Laboratory flight software is
in progress, and it is also being considered for future NASA missions.

The AEGIS capability was developed as part of a larger autonomous science framework called
OASIS (short for Onboard Autonomous Science Investigation System), which is designed to allow a
rover to identify and react to serendipitous science opportunities. The AEGIS system takes
advantage of the OASIS ability to detect and characterize interesting terrain features in rover
images. This technology was created with assistance from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project
and with funding from the New Millennium Program, the Mars Technology Program, the JPL
Research and Technology Development Program, the JPL Interplanetary Network Development
Program and the Intelligent Systems Program.

JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information on AEGIS, visit: http://aegis.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

For additional information on the Mars Explorations Rovers, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/home/index.html For more information on Mars Science Laboratory,
visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

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NASA Mars Rover Finds Mineral Vein Deposited by Water

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

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

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

News release: 2011-377 Dec. 7, 2011

NASA Mars Rover Finds Mineral Vein Deposited by Water

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-377&cid=release_2011-377

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has found bright veins of a
mineral, apparently gypsum, deposited by water. Analysis of the vein will help improve understanding
of the history of wet environments on Mars.

"This tells a slam-dunk story that water flowed through underground fractures in the rock," said Steve
Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for Opportunity. "This stuff is a fairly
pure chemical deposit that formed in place right where we see it. That can't be said for other gypsum
seen on Mars or for other water-related minerals Opportunity has found. It's not uncommon on Earth,
but on Mars, it's the kind of thing that makes geologists jump out of their chairs."

The latest findings by Opportunity were presented Wednesday at the American Geophysical Union's
conference in San Francisco.

The vein examined most closely by Opportunity is about the width of a human thumb (0.4 to 0.8 inch, or
1 to 2 centimeters), 16 to 20 inches (40 to 50 centimeters) long, and protrudes slightly higher than the
bedrock on either side of it. Observations by the durable rover reveal this vein and others like it within
an apron surrounding a segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater. None like it were seen in the 20 miles
(33 kilometers) of crater-pocked plains that Opportunity explored for 90 months before it reached
Endeavour, nor in the higher ground of the rim.

Last month, researchers used the Microscopic Imager and Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer on the
rover's arm and multiple filters of the Panoramic Camera on the rover's mast to examine the vein, which
is informally named "Homestake." The spectrometer identified plentiful calcium and sulfur, in a ratio
pointing to relatively pure calcium sulfate.

Calcium sulfate can exist in many forms, varying by how much water is bound into the minerals'
crystalline structure. The multi-filter data from the camera suggest gypsum, a hydrated calcium sulfate.
On Earth, gypsum is used for making drywall and plaster of Paris.
Observations from orbit had detected gypsum on Mars previously. A dune field of windblown gypsum
on far northern Mars resembles the glistening gypsum dunes in White Sands National Monument in
New Mexico.

"It is a mystery where the gypsum sand on northern Mars comes from," said Opportunity science-team
member Benton Clark of the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. "At Homestake, we see the
mineral right where it formed. It will be important to see if there are deposits like this in other areas of
Mars."

The Homestake deposit, whether gypsum or another form of calcium sulfate, likely formed from water
dissolving calcium out of volcanic rocks. The calcium combined with sulfur that was either leached
from the rocks or introduced as volcanic gas, and it was deposited as calcium sulfate into an
underground fracture that later became exposed at the surface.

Throughout Opportunity's long traverse across Mars' Meridiani plain, the rover has driven over bedrock
composed of magnesium, iron and calcium sulfate minerals that also indicate a wet environment billions
of years ago. The highly concentrated calcium sulfate at Homestake could have been produced in
conditions more neutral than the harshly acidic conditions indicated by the other sulfate deposits
observed by Opportunity.

"It could have formed in a different type of water environment, one more hospitable for a larger variety
of living organisms," Clark said.

Homestake and similar-looking veins appear in a zone where the sulfate-rich sedimentary bedrock of the
plains meets older, volcanic bedrock exposed at the rim of Endeavour. That location may offer a clue
about their origin.

Opportunity and its rover twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April
2004. Both rovers continued for years of extended missions and made important discoveries about wet
environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life. Spirit stopped
communicating in 2010. Opportunity continues exploring, currently heading to a sun-facing slope on the
northern end of the Endeavour rim fragment called "Cape York" to keep its solar panels at a favorable
angle during the mission's fifth Martian winter.

"We want to understand why these veins are in the apron but not out on the plains," said the mission's
deputy principal investigator, Ray Arvidson, of Washington University in St. Louis. "The answer may
be that rising groundwater coming from the ancient crust moved through material adjacent to Cape York
and deposited gypsum, because this material would be relatively insoluble compared with either
magnesium or iron sulfates."

NASA launched the next-generation Mars rover, the car-sized Curiosity, on Nov. 26. It is slated for
arrival at the planet's Gale Crater in August 2012. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the
NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about the rovers, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov . You can follow the project on
Twitter at http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/marsrovers
.
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Upcoming Workshops at NASA/JPL's Educator Resource Center

Upcoming Educator Workshops Dec. 06, 2011

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

Go For Flight!

Date: Saturday, Dec. 10, 2011, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Target audience: K-12 educators

Location: NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center, Pomona, Calif.

Overview: Math and science come alive as you construct aircraft models (kite, helicopter and glider), and launch rockets! Use questioning strategies and redesign to make these activities educationally challenging! This workshop is being offered at the NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center located in Pomona, please call 909-397-4420 to reserve your spot.

For more information and directions, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=115

Toys In Space ll

Date:Saturday, Jan. 21, 2012, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Target audience: K-12 educators

Location:NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center, Pomona, Calif.

Overview: View the educational video "Toys in Space II," which was taped during the flight of STS-54. The video shows astronauts on the space shuttle and students back on Earth co-investigating the behavior of toys in space. Video program segments show the toys' behavior in 1G (Earth's gravity) and then their behavior in the microgravity environment of space! This workshop is being offered at the NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center located in Pomona, please call 909-397-4420 to reserve your spot.

For more information and directions, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=115

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New NASA Dawn Visuals Show Vesta’s ‘Color Palette’

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

Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

Feature: 2011-375 Dec. 5, 2011

New NASA Dawn Visuals Show Vesta's 'Color Palette'

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-375&cid=release_2011-375

Vesta appears in a splendid rainbow-colored palette in new images obtained by NASA's
Dawn spacecraft. The colors, assigned by scientists to show different rock or mineral
types, reveal Vesta to be a world of many varied, well-separated layers and ingredients.
Vesta is unique among asteroids visited by spacecraft to date in having such wide
variation, supporting the notion that it is transitional between the terrestrial planets -- like
Earth, Mercury, Mars and Venus -- and its asteroid siblings.

In images from Dawn's framing camera, the colors reveal differences in the rock
composition associated with material ejected by impacts and geologic processes, such
as slumping, that have modified the asteroid's surface. Images from the visible and
infrared mapping spectrometer reveal that the surface materials contain the iron-bearing
mineral pyroxene and are a mixture of rapidly cooled surface rocks and a deeper layer
that cooled more slowly. The relative amounts of the different materials mimic the
topographic variations derived from stereo camera images, indicating a layered
structure that has been excavated by impacts. The rugged surface of Vesta is prone to
slumping of debris on steep slopes.

Dawn scientists presented the new images at the American Geophysical Union meeting
in San Francisco on Monday, Dec. 5. The panelists included Vishnu Reddy, framing
camera team associate, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-
Lindau, Germany; Eleonora Ammannito, visible and infrared spectrometer team
associate, Italian Space Agency, Rome; and David Williams, Dawn participating
scientist, Arizona State University, Tucson.

"Vesta's iron core makes it special and more like terrestrial planets than a garden-
variety asteroid," said Carol Raymond, Dawn's deputy principal investigator at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The distinct compositional variation and
layering that we see at Vesta appear to derive from internal melting of the body shortly
after formation, which separated Vesta into crust, mantle and core."

The presentation also included a new movie, created by David O'Brien of the Planetary
Science Institute, Tucson, Ariz., that takes viewers on a spin around a hill on Vesta that
appears to be made of a distinctly darker material than the rest of the crust.

Dawn launched in September 2007 and arrived at Vesta on July 15, 2011. Following a
year at Vesta, the spacecraft will depart in July 2012 for the dwarf planet Ceres, where it
will arrive in 2015.

Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall
Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built the
spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System
Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are
international partners on the mission team.

More information about the Dawn mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .

To follow the mission on Twitter, visit: http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Dawn .

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NASA Finds ‘Merging Tsunami’ Doubled Japan Destruction

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: 2011-374 Dec. 5, 2011

NASA Finds 'Merging Tsunami' Doubled Japan Destruction

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-374&cid=release_2011-374

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA and Ohio State University researchers have discovered the major
tsunami generated by the March 2011 Tohoku-Oki quake centered off northeastern Japan was a long-
hypothesized "merging tsunami." The tsunami doubled in intensity over rugged ocean ridges,
amplifying its destructive power at landfall.

Data from NASA and European radar satellites captured at least two wave fronts that day. The fronts
merged to form a single, double-high wave far out at sea. This wave was capable of traveling long
distances without losing power. Ocean ridges and undersea mountain chains pushed the waves
together along certain directions from the tsunami's origin.

The discovery helps explain how tsunamis can cross ocean basins to cause massive destruction at
some locations while leaving others unscathed. The data raise hope that scientists may be able to
improve tsunami forecasts.

Research scientist Y. Tony Song of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and
professor C.K. Shum of The Ohio State University, Columbus, discussed the data and simulations
that enabled them to piece the story together at a media briefing Monday, Dec. 5, at the American
Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

"It was a one in 10 million chance that we were able to observe this double wave with satellites,"
Song said. He is the principal investigator in the NASA-funded study.

"Researchers have suspected for decades that such 'merging tsunamis' might have been responsible
for the 1960 Chilean tsunami that killed about 200 people in Japan and Hawaii, but nobody had
definitively observed a merging tsunami until now," Song said. "It was like looking for a ghost. A
NASA-French Space Agency satellite altimeter happened to be in the right place at the right time to
capture the double wave and verify its existence."

The NASA-Centre National d'Etudes Spaciales Jason-1 satellite passed over the tsunami on March
11, as did two other satellites: the NASA-European Jason-2 and the European Space Agency's
EnviSAT. All three satellites carry radar altimeters, which measure sea level changes to an accuracy
of a few centimeters. Each satellite crossed the tsunami at a different location, measuring the wave
fronts as they occurred. Jason-1 launched 10 years ago this week on Dec. 7, 2001.

"We can use what we learned to make better forecasts of tsunami danger in specific coastal regions
anywhere in the world, depending on the location and the mechanism of an undersea quake," Shum
said.

The researchers think ridges and undersea mountain chains on the ocean floor deflected parts of the
initial tsunami wave away from each other to form independent jets shooting off in different
directions, each with its own wave front.

The sea-floor topography nudges tsunami waves in varying directions and can make its destruction
appear random. For that reason, hazard maps that try to predict where tsunamis will strike rely on
sub-sea topography. Previously, these maps considered only topography near a particular shoreline.
This study suggests scientists may be able to create maps that take into account all undersea
topography, even sub-sea ridges and mountains far from shore.

Song and his team were able to verify the satellite data through model simulations based on
independent data, including GPS data from Japan and buoy data from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration's Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis program.

"Tools based on this research could help officials forecast the potential for tsunami jets to merge,"
Song said. "This, in turn, could lead to more accurate coastal tsunami hazard maps to protect
communities and critical infrastructure."

For more information on Jason-1 and Jason-2, visit: http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov .

For more information about presentations at the American Geophysical Union meeting, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/agu .

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

Additional media contact: Pam Frost Gorder, Ohio State, 614-668-3585, gorder.1@osu.edu .

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NASA's Kepler Confirms Its First Planet In Habitable Zone

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

Michele Johnson 650-604-6982
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
michele.johnson@nasa.gov

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

News release: 2011-373 Dec. 5, 2011

NASA's Kepler Confirms Its First Planet In Habitable Zone

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-373&cid=release_2011-373

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable
zone," the region around a star where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Kepler also
has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known
count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host
star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets.

The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the
habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth.
Scientists don't yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid
composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.

Previous research hinted at the existence of near-Earth-size planets in habitable zones, but clear
confirmation proved elusive. Two other small planets orbiting stars smaller and cooler than our
sun recently were confirmed on the very edges of the habitable zone, with orbits more closely
resembling those of Venus and Mars.

"This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," said Douglas Hudgins, Kepler
program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Kepler's results continue to
demonstrate the importance of NASA's science missions, which aim to answer some of the
biggest questions about our place in the universe."

Kepler discovers planets and planet candidates by measuring dips in the brightness of more than
150,000 stars to search for planets that cross in front, or "transit," the stars. Kepler requires at
least three transits to verify a signal as a planet.

"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler
principal investigator at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., who led the team
that discovered Kepler-22b. "The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the
spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday
season."

The Kepler science team uses ground-based telescopes and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to
review observations on planet candidates the spacecraft finds. The star field that Kepler observes
in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra can only be seen from ground-based observatories in
spring through early fall. The data from these other observations help determine which
candidates can be validated as planets.

Kepler-22b is located 600 light-years away. While the planet is larger than Earth, its orbit of 290
days around a sun-like star resembles that of our world. The planet's host star belongs to the
same class as our sun, called G-type, although it is slightly smaller and cooler.

Of the 54 habitable zone planet candidates reported in February 2011, Kepler-22b is the first to
be confirmed. This milestone will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The Kepler team is hosting its inaugural science conference at Ames Dec. 5-9, announcing 1,094
new planet candidate discoveries. Since the last catalog was released in February, the number of
planet candidates identified by Kepler has increased by 89 percent and now totals 2,326. Of
these, 207 are approximately Earth-size, 680 are super Earth-size, 1,181 are Neptune-size, 203
are Jupiter-size and 55 are larger than Jupiter.

The findings, based on observations conducted May 2009 to September 2010, show a dramatic
increase in the numbers of smaller-size planet candidates.

Kepler observed many large planets in small orbits early in its mission, which were reflected in
the February data release. Having had more time to observe three transits of planets with longer
orbital periods, the new data suggest that planets one to four times the size of Earth may be
abundant in the galaxy.

The number of Earth-size, and super Earth-size candidates, has increased by more than 200 and
140 percent since February, respectively.

There are 48 planet candidates in their star's habitable zone. While this is a decrease from the 54
reported in February, the Kepler team has applied a stricter definition of what constitutes a
habitable zone in the new catalog, to account for the warming effect of atmospheres, which
would move the zone away from the star, out to longer orbital periods.

"The tremendous growth in the number of Earth-size candidates tells us that we're honing in on
the planets Kepler was designed to detect: those that are not only Earth-size, but also are
potentially habitable," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at San Jose State
University in San Jose, Calif. "The more data we collect, the keener our eye for finding the
smallest planets out at longer orbital periods."

NASA's Ames Research Center manages Kepler's ground system development, mission
operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,
managed Kepler mission development.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system
and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the
University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes the Kepler
science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA's Science
Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters.

For more information about the Kepler mission and to view the digital press kit, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/kepler .

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NASA's Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge

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

Jia-Rui C. Cook/Alan Buis 818-354-0850/818-653-8339
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov/alan.d.buis@jpl.nasa.gov

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

News release: 2011-372 Dec. 5, 2011

NASA's Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-372&cid=release_2011-372

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has entered a new region between our solar
system and interstellar space. Data obtained from Voyager over the last year reveal this new region to
be a kind of cosmic purgatory. In it, the wind of charged particles streaming out from our sun has
calmed, our solar system's magnetic field is piled up, and higher-energy particles from inside our
solar system appear to be leaking out into interstellar space.

"Voyager tells us now that we're in a stagnation region in the outermost layer of the bubble around
our solar system," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology
in Pasadena. "Voyager is showing that what is outside is pushing back. We shouldn't have long to
wait to find out what the space between stars is really like."

Although Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun, it is not yet in
interstellar space. In the latest data, the direction of the magnetic field lines has not changed,
indicating Voyager is still within the heliosphere, the bubble of charged particles the sun blows
around itself. The data do not reveal exactly when Voyager 1 will make it past the edge of the solar
atmosphere into interstellar space, but suggest it will be in a few months to a few years.

The latest findings, described today at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San
Francisco, come from Voyager's Low Energy Charged Particle instrument, Cosmic Ray Subsystem
and Magnetometer.

Scientists previously reported the outward speed of the solar wind had diminished to zero in April
2010, marking the start of the new region. Mission managers rolled the spacecraft several times this
spring and summer to help scientists discern whether the solar wind was blowing strongly in another
direction. It was not. Voyager 1 is plying the celestial seas in a region similar to Earth's doldrums,
where there is very little wind.

During this past year, Voyager's magnetometer also detected a doubling in the intensity of the
magnetic field in the stagnation region. Like cars piling up at a clogged freeway off-ramp, the
increased intensity of the magnetic field shows that inward pressure from interstellar space is
compacting it.

Voyager has been measuring energetic particles that originate from inside and outside our solar
system. Until mid-2010, the intensity of particles originating from inside our solar system had been
holding steady. But during the past year, the intensity of these energetic particles has been declining,
as though they are leaking out into interstellar space. The particles are now half as abundant as they
were during the previous five years.

At the same time, Voyager has detected a 100-fold increase in the intensity of high-energy electrons
from elsewhere in the galaxy diffusing into our solar system from outside, which is another indication
of the approaching boundary.

"We've been using the flow of energetic charged particles at Voyager 1 as a kind of wind sock to
estimate the solar wind velocity," said Rob Decker, a Voyager Low-Energy Charged Particle
Instrument co-investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel,
Md. "We've found that the wind speeds are low in this region and gust erratically. For the first time,
the wind even blows back at us. We are evidently traveling in completely new territory. Scientists
had suggested previously that there might be a stagnation layer, but we weren't sure it existed until
now."

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 and 2 are in good health. Voyager 2 is 9 billion miles (15 billion
kilometers) away from the sun.

The Voyager spacecraft were built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., which
continues to operate both. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. The Voyager
missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics
Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about the Voyager
spacecraft, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/voyager .

For more information about NASA media events at the American Geophysical Union meeting, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/agu .

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