Attend the 3rd Annual Climate Change Symposium at JPL

Attend the 3rd Annual Climate Change Symposium at JPL

The JPL Green Club and Earth Science Public Engagement will host the 3rd annual JPL Climate Change
Symposium, "Empowering Action Through Climate Science Knowledge." This free event is open to the public
and there is no need to register, but seating is limited. The event will also be streamed live on the web.

Experts from JPL, UCLA, and the Union of Concerned Scientists will discuss climate change science and
climate change policy. On the agenda are JPL climate scientists Annmarie Eldering, Josh Fisher, Ron Kwok
and Jorge Vazquez, and staff members Kevin Hussey and Laura Tenenbaum. Climate policy and action will be
discussed by Cara Horowitz (UCLA Emmett Center), Amanda Alvord (Union of Concerned Scientists), and 17-
year-old Alec Loorz (Kids vs. Global Warming). Each of the eight brief presentations will be followed by a
question and answer session. An optional short "Climate Jeopardy" contest will be held at the end of the
program.

Date: Saturday, November 12
Time: 1:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Location: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory
von Karman Auditorium
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109

For more information: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/climatesymposium
View live webcast: http://www.ustream.tv/NASAJPL2
Directions to JPL: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/about_JPL/maps.cfm

NASA in Final Preparations for Nov. 8 Asteroid Flyby

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

Feature: 2011-332 Oct. 26, 2011

NASA in Final Preparations for Nov. 8 Asteroid Flyby

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-332&cid=release_2011-332

NASA scientists will be tracking asteroid 2005 YU55 with antennas of the agency's Deep Space Network
at Goldstone, Calif., as the space rock safely flies past Earth slightly closer than the moon's orbit on Nov.
8. Scientists are treating the flyby of the 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter) asteroid as a science target of
opportunity – allowing instruments on "spacecraft Earth" to scan it during the close pass.

Tracking of the aircraft carrier-sized asteroid will begin at 9:30 a.m. local time (PDT) on Nov. 4, using the
massive 70-meter (230-foot) Deep Space Network antenna, and last for about two hours. The asteroid
will continue to be tracked by Goldstone for at least four hours each day from Nov. 6 through Nov. 10.
Radar observations from the Arecibo Planetary Radar Facility in Puerto Rico will begin on Nov. 8, the
same day the asteroid will make its closest approach to Earth at 3:28 p.m. PST.

The trajectory of asteroid 2005 YU55 is well understood. At the point of closest approach, it will be no
closer than 201,700 miles (324,600 kilometers) or 0.85 the distance from the moon to Earth. The
gravitational influence of the asteroid will have no detectable effect on anything here on Earth, including
our planet's tides or tectonic plates. Although 2005 YU55 is in an orbit that regularly brings it to the
vicinity of Earth (and Venus and Mars), the 2011 encounter with Earth is the closest this space rock has
come for at least the last 200 years.

During tracking, scientists will use the Goldstone and Arecibo antennas to bounce radio waves off the
space rock. Radar echoes returned from 2005 YU55 will be collected and analyzed. NASA scientists hope
to obtain images of the asteroid from Goldstone as fine as about 7 feet (2 meters) per pixel. This should
reveal a wealth of detail about the asteroid's surface features, shape, dimensions and other physical
properties (see "Radar Love" - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2006-00a ).

Arecibo radar observations of asteroid 2005 YU55 made in 2010 show it to be approximately spherical in
shape. It is slowly spinning, with a rotation period of about 18 hours. The asteroid's surface is darker
than charcoal at optical wavelengths. Amateur astronomers who want to get a glimpse at YU55 will
need a telescope with an aperture of 6 inches (15 centimeters) or larger.

The last time a space rock as big came as close to Earth was in 1976, although astronomers did not know
about the flyby at the time. The next known approach of an asteroid this large will be in 2028.

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground-
and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called
"Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to
determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch .

More information about asteroid radar research is at: http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

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

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=jdKMIMMnHjLKLWI&s=jjK0J4MJIfJMJ3PPKtF&m=ceIQI1PBLlLLKYL

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mqISIVOzFmJRJ6L&s=jjK0J4MJIfJMJ3PPKtF&m=ceIQI1PBLlLLKYL

NASA Says Comet Elenin Gone and Should Be Forgotten

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

Feature: 2011-331 Oct. 25, 2011

NASA Says Comet Elenin Gone and Should Be Forgotten

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-331&cid=release_2011-331

Comet Elenin is no more.

Latest indications are this relatively small comet has broken into even smaller, even less
significant, chunks of dust and ice. This trail of piffling particles will remain on the same path as
the original comet, completing its unexceptional swing through the inner solar system this fall.

"Elenin did as new comets passing close by the sun do about two percent of the time: It broke
apart," said Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office in Pasadena, Calif.
"Elenin's remnants will also act as other broken-up comets act. They will trail along in a debris
cloud that will follow a well-understood path out of the inner solar system. After that, we won't
see the scraps of comet Elenin around these parts for almost 12 millennia."

Twelve millennia may be a long time to Earthlings, but for those frozen inhabitants of the outer
solar system who make this commute, a dozen millennia give or take is a walk in the celestial
park. Comet Elenin came as close as 45 million miles (72 million kilometers) to the sun, but it
arrived from the outer solar system's Oort Cloud, which is so far away its outer edge is about a
third of the way to the nearest star other than our sun.

For those broken up over the breakup of what was formerly about 1.2 miles (two kilometers) of
uninspiring dust and ice, remember what Yeomans said about comets coming close to the sun –
they fall apart about two percent of the time.

"Comets are made up of ice, rock, dust and organic compounds and can be several miles in
diameter, but they are fragile and loosely held together like dust balls," said Yeomans. "So it
doesn't take much to get a comet to disintegrate, and with comets, once they break up, there is no
hope of reconciliation."

Comet Elenin first came to light last December, when sunlight reflecting off the small comet was
detected by Russian astronomer Leonid Elenin of Lyubertsy, Russia. Also known by its
astronomical name, C/2010 X1, Elenin somehow quickly became something of a "cause célèbre"
for a few Internet bloggers, who proclaimed this minor comet could/would/should be responsible
for causing any number of disasters to befall our planet.

Internet posts began appearing, many with nebulous, hearsay observations and speculations
about earthquakes and other disasters being due to Elenin's gravitational effects upon Earth.
NASA's response to (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-255) such wild
speculations was then in turn speculated to be an attempt to hide the truth.

"I cannot begin to guess why this little comet became such a big Internet sensation," said
Yeomans. "The scientific reality is this modest-sized icy dirtball's influence upon our planet is so
incredibly miniscule that my subcompact automobile exerts a greater gravitational influence on
Earth than the comet ever would. That includes the date it came closest to Earth (Oct. 16), when
the comet's remnants got no closer than about 22 million miles (35.4 million kilometers)."

Yeomans knows that while Elenin may be gone, there will always be Internet rumors that will
attempt to conjure up some form of interplanetary bogeyman out of Elenin, or some equally
obscure and scientifically uninteresting near-Earth object. Thinking of ways to make himself
any more clear about the insignificance of this matter is somewhat challenging for a scientist
who has dedicated his life to observing asteroids and comets and discovering their true nature
and effects on our solar system.

"Perhaps a little homage to a classic Monty Python dead parrot sketch is in order," said
Yeomans. "Comet Elenin has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-
comet."

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing relatively close to Earth
using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program,
commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes the physical nature of a
subset of them, and predicts their paths to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our
planet. There are no known credible threats to date.

JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch , and on Twitter: @asteroidwatch .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mgIRIYOxFdJUJcL&s=kuK2K7PNIgLOJ6MTLuG&m=frKWJ8MLLjKTKeI

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=rlL1LdMRLjKWLiI&s=kuK2K7PNIgLOJ6MTLuG&m=frKWJ8MLLjKTKeI

NASA Telescopes Help Solve Ancient Supernova Mystery

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

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

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

News release: 2011-329 Oct. 24, 2011

NASA Telescopes Help Solve Ancient Supernova Mystery

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-329&cid=release_2011-329

PASADENA, Calif. -- A mystery that began nearly 2,000 years ago, when Chinese astronomers
witnessed what would turn out to be an exploding star in the sky, has been solved. New infrared
observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or
WISE, reveal how the first supernova ever recorded occurred and how its shattered remains
ultimately spread out to great distances.

The findings show that the stellar explosion took place in a hollowed-out cavity, allowing
material expelled by the star to travel much faster and farther than it would have otherwise.

"This supernova remnant got really big, really fast," said Brian J. Williams, an astronomer at
North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Williams is lead author of a new study detailing the
findings online in the Astrophysical Journal. "It's two to three times bigger than we would expect
for a supernova that was witnessed exploding nearly 2,000 years ago. Now, we've been able to
finally pinpoint the cause."

A new image of the supernova, known as RCW 86, is online at http://go.nasa.gov/pnv6Oy .

In 185 A.D., Chinese astronomers noted a "guest star" that mysteriously appeared in the sky and
stayed for about 8 months. By the 1960s, scientists had determined that the mysterious object
was the first documented supernova. Later, they pinpointed RCW 86 as a supernova remnant
located about 8,000 light-years away. But a puzzle persisted. The star's spherical remains are
larger than expected. If they could be seen in the sky today in infrared light, they'd take up more
space than our full moon.

The solution arrived through new infrared observations made with Spitzer and WISE, and
previous data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the European Space Agency's
XMM-Newton Observatory.

The findings reveal that the event is a "Type Ia" supernova, created by the relatively peaceful
death of a star like our sun, which then shrank into a dense star called a white dwarf. The white
dwarf is thought to have later blown up in a supernova after siphoning matter, or fuel, from a
nearby star.

"A white dwarf is like a smoking cinder from a burnt-out fire," Williams said. "If you pour
gasoline on it, it will explode."

The observations also show for the first time that a white dwarf can create a cavity around it
before blowing up in a Type Ia event. A cavity would explain why the remains of RCW 86 are so
big. When the explosion occurred, the ejected material would have traveled unimpeded by gas
and dust and spread out quickly.

Spitzer and WISE allowed the team to measure the temperature of the dust making up the RCW
86 remnant at about minus 325 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 200 degrees Celsius. They then
calculated how much gas must be present within the remnant to heat the dust to those
temperatures. The results point to a low-density environment for much of the life of the remnant,
essentially a cavity.

Scientists initially suspected that RCW 86 was the result of a core-collapse supernova, the most
powerful type of stellar blast. They had seen hints of a cavity around the remnant, and, at that
time, such cavities were only associated with core-collapse supernovae. In those events, massive
stars blow material away from them before they blow up, carving out holes around them.

But other evidence argued against a core-collapse supernova. X-ray data from Chandra and
XMM-Newton indicated that the object consisted of high amounts of iron, a telltale sign of a
Type Ia blast. Together with the infrared observations, a picture of a Type Ia explosion into a
cavity emerged.

"Modern astronomers unveiled one secret of a two-millennia-old cosmic mystery only to reveal
another," said Bill Danchi, Spitzer and WISE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "Now, with multiple observatories extending our senses in space, we can fully
appreciate the remarkable physics behind this star's death throes, yet still be as in awe of the
cosmos as the ancient astronomers."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted
at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech
manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu/
and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

JPL manages, and operated, WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The spacecraft was
put into hibernation mode after it scanned the entire sky twice, completing its main objectives.
Edward Wright is the principal investigator and is at UCLA. The mission was selected
competitively under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight
Center in Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in
Logan. 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 Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information is online at
http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://jpl.nasa.gov/wise .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=osJUK1ODIhLSJaJ&s=ddJOKMOlH9JAJLNrHnF&m=bdJOLUMnE6LCKWI

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=rlL0LaMPLkKZLkI&s=ddJOKMOlH9JAJLNrHnF&m=bdJOLUMnE6LCKWI

Herschel Finds Oceans of Water in Disk of Nearby Star

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

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

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

News release: 2011-327 Oct. 20, 2011

Herschel Finds Oceans of Water in Disk of Nearby Star

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-327&cid=release_2011-327

PASADENA, Calif. -- Using data from the Herschel Space Observatory, astronomers have detected
for the first time cold water vapor enveloping a dusty disk around a young star. The findings suggest
that this disk, which is poised to develop into a solar system, contains great quantities of water,
suggesting that water-covered planets like Earth may be common in the universe. Herschel is a
European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.

Scientists previously found warm water vapor in planet-forming disks close to a central star.
Evidence for vast quantities of water extending out into the cooler, far reaches of disks where
comets take shape had not been seen until now. The more water available in disks for icy comets to
form, the greater the chances that large amounts eventually will reach new planets through impacts.

"Our observations of this cold vapor indicate enough water exists in the disk to fill thousands of
Earth oceans," said astronomer Michiel Hogerheijde of Leiden Observatory in The Netherlands.
Hogerheijde is the lead author of a paper describing these findings in the Oct. 21 issue of the journal
Science.

The star with this waterlogged disk, called TW Hydrae, is 10 million years old and located about
175 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Hydra. The frigid, watery haze detected by
Hogerheijde and his team is thought to originate from ice-coated grains of dust near the disk's
surface. Ultraviolet light from the star causes some water molecules to break free of this ice, creating
a thin layer of gas with a light signature detected by Herschel's Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-
Infrared, or HIFI.

"These are the most sensitive HIFI observations to date," said Paul Goldsmith, NASA project
scientist for the Herschel Space Observatory at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif. "It is a testament to the instrument builders that such weak signals can be detected."

TW Hydrae is an orange dwarf star, somewhat smaller and cooler than our yellow-white sun. The
giant disk of material that encircles the star has a size nearly 200 times the distance between Earth
and the sun. Over the next few million years, astronomers believe matter within the disk will collide
and grow into planets, asteroids and other cosmic bodies. Dust and ice particles will assemble as
comets.

As the new solar system evolves, icy comets are likely to deposit much of the water they contain on
freshly created worlds through impacts, giving rise to oceans. Astronomers believe TW Hydrae and
its icy disk may be representative of many other young star systems, providing new insights on how
planets with abundant water could form throughout the universe.

Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission launched in 2009, carrying science
instruments provided by consortia of European institutes. NASA's Herschel Project Office based at
JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The
NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, supports the U.S. astronomical community. Caltech
manages JPL for NASA.

For NASA's Herschel website, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/herschel .

For ESA's Herschel website, visit: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=oiJTKZOBIeLVJfJ&s=mwK6JdOVJiISKcN1KwG&m=jvJ3IjPUJdLTKlK

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=rvLZL8MNLhK2LpI&s=mwK6JdOVJiISKcN1KwG&m=jvJ3IjPUJdLTKlK

Mars Rover Carries Device for Underground Scouting

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

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

Feature: 2011-325 Oct. 20, 2011

Mars Rover Carries Device For Underground Scouting

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-325&cid=release_2011-325

An instrument on NASA's Mars rover Curiosity can check for any water that might be
bound into shallow underground minerals along the rover's path.

"If we conclude that there is something unusual in the subsurface at a particular spot,
we could suggest more analysis of the spot using the capabilities of other instruments,"
said this instrument's principal investigator, Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research
Institute, Russia.

The Mars Science Laboratory mission will use 10 instruments on Curiosity to investigate
whether the area selected for the mission has ever offered environmental conditions
favorable for life and favorable for preserving evidence about life.

"The strength of Mars Science Laboratory is the combination of all the instruments
together," Mitrofanov added.

The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument, or DAN, will scout for underground clues
to a depth of about 20 inches (50 centimeters). The Russian Federal Space Agency
contributed it to NASA as part of a broad collaboration between the United States and
Russia in the exploration of space. Sergey Saveliev, deputy head of the Russian
Federal Space Agency, emphasized that the cooperation on this project serves as a
continuation of the joint activities associated with the study of Mars to enhance the
scientific return to the international community in the areas of Mars exploration and
Mars knowledge. The accommodation and integration of the Russian DAN in the U.S.
Mars Science Laboratory flight and mission systems give evidence of strengthening
cooperation between the two countries in space endeavors.

DAN will bring to the surface of Mars an enhancement of nuclear technology that has
already detected Martian water from orbit. "Albedo" in the instrument's name means
reflectance -- in this case, how original high-energy neutrons injected into the ground
bounce off atomic nuclei in the ground. Neutrons that collide with hydrogen atoms
bounce off with a characteristic decrease in energy, similar to how one billiard ball slows
after colliding with another. By measuring the energies of the neutrons leaking from the
ground, DAN can detect the fraction that was slowed in these collisions, and therefore
the amount of hydrogen.

Oil prospectors use this technology in instruments lowered down exploration holes to
detect the hydrogen in petroleum. Space explorers have adapted it for missions to the
moon and Mars, where most hydrogen is in water ice or in water-derived hydroxyl ions.

Mitrofanov is the principal investigator for a Russian instrument on NASA's Mars
Odyssey orbiter, the high-energy neutron detector (HEND), which measures high
energy of neutrons coming from Mars. In 2002, it and companion instruments on
Odyssey detected hydrogen interpreted as abundant underground water ice close to the
surface at high latitudes. That discovery led to NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander going to
far northern Mars in 2008 and confirming the presence of water ice.

"You can think of DAN as a reconnaissance instrument," Mitrofanov said. Just as
Phoenix investigated what Odyssey detected, Curiosity can use various tools to
investigate what DAN detects. The rover has a soil scoop and can also dig with its
wheels. Its robotic arm can put samples into instruments inside the rover for thorough
analyses of ingredients. Rock formations that Curiosity's cameras view at the surface
can be traced underground with DAN, enhancing the ability of scientists to understand
the geology.

The neutron detectors on Odyssey rely on galactic cosmic rays hitting Mars as a source
of neutrons. DAN can work in a passive mode relying on cosmic rays, but it also has its
own pulsing neutron generator for an active mode of shooting high-energy neutrons into
the ground. In active mode, it is sensitive enough to detect water content as low as one-
tenth of one percent in the ground beneath the rover.

The neutron generator is mounted on Curiosity's right hip. A module with two neutron
detectors is mounted on the left hip. With pulses lasting about one microsecond and
repeated as frequently as 10 times per second, key measurements by the detectors are
the flux rate and delay time of moderated neutrons with different energy levels returning
from the ground. The generator will be able to emit a total of about 10 million pulses
during the mission, with about 10 million neutrons at each pulse.

"We have a fixed number of about 10 million shots, so one major challenge is to
determine our strategy for how we will use them," said Maxim Litvak, leading scientist of
the DAN investigation from the Space Research Institute.

Operational planning anticipates using DAN during short pauses in drives and while the
rover is parked. It will check for any changes or trends in subsurface hydrogen content,
from place to place along the traverse. Because there is a low possibility for
underground water ice at Curiosity's Gale crater landing site, the most likely form of
hydrogen in the ground of the landing area is hydrated minerals. These are minerals
with water molecules or hydroxyl ions bound into the crystalline structure of the mineral.
They can tenaciously retain water from a wetter past when all free water has gone.

"We want a better understanding of where the water has gone," said Alberto Behar,
DAN investigation scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "DAN
fits right into the follow-the-water strategy for studying Mars."

Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena said, "DAN will provide the ability to detect hydrated minerals
or water ice in the shallow subsurface, which provides immediate clues as to how the
geology of the subsurface might guide exploration of the surface. In addition, DAN can
tell us how the shallow subsurface may differ from what the rover sees at the surface.
None of our other instruments have the ability to do this. DAN measurements will tell us
about the habitability potential of subsurface rocks and soils -- whether they contain
water -- and as we drive along, DAN may help us understand what kinds of rocks are
under the soils we drive across."

Information from DAN will also provide a ground-truth calibration for the measurements
that the gamma-ray and neutron detectors on Odyssey have made and continue to
make, all around the planet, enhancing the value of that global data set. The team
leader of Odyssey's gamma-ray spectrometer suite, William Boynton of the University of
Arizona in Tucson, is a co-investigator on the DAN investigation, with the major
responsibility to provide DAN data products to NASA's Planetary Data System for usage
by scientists everywhere.

Besides heading the team that developed and will operate DAN, Mitrofanov is the
principal investigator for a passive neutron-detector instrument to check for hydrated
minerals on Mars' moon Phobos as part of the Phobos Soil Return mission that Russia
plans to launch in November 2011. "Measurements by DAN on the Mars surface will be
useful for the interpretation of Phobos data," he said.

The DAN instrument was developed by the Space Research Institute, Moscow, in close
cooperation with the N. L. Dukhov All-Russia Research Institute of Automatics, Moscow,
and the Joint Institute of Nuclear Research, Dubna. A Russian-language website is
available at http://l503.iki.rssi.ru/ .

The Mars Science Laboratory is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of
Techology, Pasadena. For more information on the mission,
visit http://www.nasa.gov/msl .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=koKKJSNzHhLPI6I&s=lvL4LaMRIhJQK9MXJvH&m=bdINJUOuEhIGKVL

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=pjJUL7PTInIRKcJ&s=lvL4LaMRIhJQK9MXJvH&m=bdINJUOuEhIGKVL

NASA's Spitzer Detects Comet Storm in Nearby 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.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

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

News release: 2011- 322 Oct. 19, 2011

NASA's Spitzer Detects Comet Storm in Nearby Solar System

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-322&cid=release_2011-322

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected signs of icy bodies raining
down in an alien solar system. The downpour resembles our own solar system several billion
years ago during a period known as the "Late Heavy Bombardment," which may have brought
water and other life-forming ingredients to Earth.

During this epoch, comets and other frosty objects that were flung from the outer solar system
pummeled the inner planets. The barrage scarred our moon and produced large amounts of dust.

Now Spitzer has spotted a band of dust around a nearby bright star in the northern sky called Eta
Corvi that strongly matches the contents of an obliterated giant comet. This dust is located close
enough to Eta Corvi that Earth-like worlds could exist, suggesting a collision took place between
a planet and one or more comets. The Eta Corvi system is approximately one billion years old,
which researchers think is about the right age for such a hailstorm.

"We believe we have direct evidence for an ongoing Late Heavy Bombardment in the nearby star
system Eta Corvi, occurring about the same time as in our solar system," said Carey Lisse, senior
research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.,
and lead author of a paper detailing the findings. The findings will be published in the
Astrophysical Journal. Lisse presented the results at the Signposts of Planets meeting at NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., today, Oct. 19.

Astronomers used Spitzer's infrared detectors to analyze the light coming from the dust around
Eta Corvi. Certain chemical fingerprints were observed, including water ice, organics and rock,
which indicate a giant comet source.

The light signature emitted by the dust around Eta Corvi also resembles the Almahata Sitta
meteorite, which fell to Earth in fragments across Sudan in 2008. The similarities between the
meteorite and the object obliterated in Eta Corvi imply a common birthplace in their respective
solar systems.

A second, more massive ring of colder dust located at the far edge of the Eta Corvi system seems
like the proper environment for a reservoir of cometary bodies. This bright ring, discovered in
2005, looms at about 150 times the distance from Eta Corvi as the Earth is from the sun. Our
solar system has a similar region, known as the Kuiper Belt, where icy and rocky leftovers from
planet formation linger. The new Spitzer data suggest that the Almahata Sitta meteorite may
have originated in our own Kuiper Belt.

The Kuiper Belt was home to a vastly greater number of these frozen bodies, collectively dubbed
Kuiper Belt objects. About 4 billion years ago, some 600 million years after our solar system
formed, scientists think the Kuiper Belt was disturbed by a migration of the gas-giant planets
Jupiter and Saturn. This jarring shift in the solar system's gravitational balance scattered the icy
bodies in the Kuiper Belt, flinging the vast majority into interstellar space and producing cold
dust in the belt. Some Kuiper Belt objects, however, were set on paths that crossed the orbits of
the inner planets.

The resulting bombardment of comets lasted until 3.8 billion years ago. After comets impacted
the side of the moon that faces Earth, magma seeped out of the lunar crust, eventually cooling
into dark "seas," or maria. When viewed against the lighter surrounding areas of the lunar
surface, those seas form the distinctive "Man in the Moon" visage. Comets also struck Earth or
incinerated in the atmosphere, and are thought to have deposited water and carbon on our planet.
This period of impacts might have helped life form by delivering its crucial ingredients.

"We think the Eta Corvi system should be studied in detail to learn more about the rain of
impacting comets and other objects that may have started life on our own planet," Lisse said.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer mission for the
agency's Science Mission Directorate in 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 .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=lpJLKWOCIeKQL9L&s=jtJ0K4PJLfLMK3OPItG&m=coKPLVNtGdJGKYJ

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=quIVJbPWKkLSIfI&s=jtJ0K4PJLfLMK3OPItG&m=coKPLVNtGdJGKYJ

NASA/JPL to Participate in Annual California Science Teachers Association Conference

Educator Events Oct. 17, 2011

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

NASA/JPL to Participate in Annual California Science Teachers Association Conference

JPL and NASA will be well represented at California's premier professional gathering for science educators Friday through Sunday, Oct. 21-23, at the Pasadena Convention Center. Numerous talks and workshops will feature Mars exploration, water in the solar system and uses of NASA data in the classroom. There will also be an exhibit area featuring a full-scale model of NASA's Curiosity, the car-sized rover about to embark from Earth to Mars. Details, including multi-day and single-day registration information, are at: http://www.cascience.org/csta/conf_home11.asp

Who should attend? Classroom science teachers (Pre-K-12), science specialists, science coaches, district and county science coordinators, home school educators, preservice science teachers, university and college science teacher educators, and informal science educators.

Full conference registration includes access to all 250 workshop and commercial workshop sessions (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), two general sessions (one on Friday and one on Sunday), two evening events (Friday and Saturday nights), admittance into the exhibit hall (open on Friday and Saturday) and seven focus speakers (Friday and Saturday).

Weekend-only registration includes workshops and commercial workshops on Saturday and Sunday, the general session on Sunday, the exhibit hall on Saturday, the Saturday evening event and the focus speaker sessions on Saturday.

Learn more at http://www.cascience.org/csta/conf_home11.asp

For more on JPL Education, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mqLMITNELeIFK3J&s=eeKQJPNpHaLCIOPvHoE&m=kmI4JnO3LnL0InJ

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=pjISI2PQJhKMIdI&s=eeKQJPNpHaLCIOPvHoE&m=kmI4JnO3LnL0InJ

NASA, Japan Release Improved Topographic Map of Earth

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

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

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2011-320 Oct. 17, 2011

NASA, Japan Release Improved Topographic Map of Earth

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-320&cid=release_2011-320

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA and Japan released a significantly improved version of the most
complete digital topographic map of Earth on Monday, produced with detailed measurements from
NASA's Terra spacecraft.

The map, known as a global digital elevation model, was created from images collected by the
Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER,
instrument aboard Terra. So-called stereo-pair images are produced by merging two slightly offset
two-dimensional images to create the three-dimensional effect of depth. The first version of the map
was released by NASA and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in June 2009.

"The ASTER global digital elevation model was already the most complete, consistent global
topographic map in the world," said Woody Turner, ASTER program scientist at NASA
Headquarters in Washington. "With these enhancements, its resolution is in many respects
comparable to the U.S. data from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, while covering more
of the globe."

The improved version of the map adds 260,000 additional stereo-pair images to improve coverage. It
features improved spatial resolution, increased horizontal and vertical accuracy, more realistic
coverage over water bodies and the ability to identify lakes as small as 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) in
diameter. The map is available online to users everywhere at no cost.

"This updated version of the ASTER global digital elevation model provides civilian users with the
highest-resolution global topography data available," said Mike Abrams, ASTER science team leader
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "These data can be used for a broad range of
applications, from planning highways and protecting lands with cultural or environmental
significance, to searching for natural resources."

The ASTER data cover 99 percent of Earth's landmass and span from 83 degrees north latitude to 83
degrees south. Each elevation measurement point in the data is 98 feet (30 meters) apart.

NASA and METI are jointly contributing the data for the ASTER topographic map to the Group on
Earth Observations, an international partnership headquartered at the World Meteorological
Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, for use in its Global Earth Observation System of Systems.
This "system of systems" is a collaborative, international effort to share and integrate Earth
observation data from many different instruments and systems to help monitor and forecast global
environmental changes.

ASTER is one of five instruments launched on Terra in 1999. ASTER acquires images from visible
to thermal infrared wavelengths, with spatial resolutions ranging from about 50 to 300 feet (15 to 90
meters). A joint science team from the United States and Japan validates and calibrates the instrument
and data products. The U.S. science team is located at JPL.

NASA, METI, Japan's Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center (ERSDAC), and the U.S.
Geological Survey validated the data, with support from the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency and other collaborators. The data are distributed by NASA's Land Processes Distributed
Active Archive Center at the U.S. Geological Survey's Earth Resources Observation and Science
Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., and by ERSDAC in Tokyo.

Users of the new version of the ASTER data products are advised that while improved, the data still
contain anomalies and artifacts that will affect its usefulness for certain applications.

Data users can download the ASTER global digital elevation model at: https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/ or
http://www.ersdac.or.jp/GDEM/E/4.html .

For more information about ASTER, visit: http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ . For more information on
NASA's Terra mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/terra .

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

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=keIIJNMpG8IELXJ&s=isLYK1MFJeKKL0OLJsF&m=hjLYLeOTLhJTLiL

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=nhKOJWOBIbLLI7I&s=isLYK1MFJeKKL0OLJsF&m=hjLYLeOTLhJTLiL

Upcoming Workshops at NASA/JPL's Educator Resource Center

Upcoming Educator Workshops Oct. 12, 2011

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

NASA Lunar and Meteorite Sample Certification Program

Date: Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011, 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.

Target audience: K-12 educators

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

Overview:NASA makes actual lunar samples from the historic Apollo missions available to lend to teachers. Attend this certification workshop to bring the excitement of real lunar rocks and regolith samples to your students. This workshop is being offered at the NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center located in Pomona, Calif. 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

Robotics

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

Target audience: K-12 educators

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

Overview:Did you know that at JPL we talk to Mars robots every day? Discover how engineers use animals to design robots. Come see the exciting extent that we use robotics today and look into the future for space and medicine. Make and take inexpensive classroom activities and bring technology into your classroom! 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

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

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=qlL3LdMSLiKTLkI&s=ffJSJSNtHbLEIRNzFpH&m=jvI1JjMXKeLULmJ

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=jeJPISNqFbJGJ0K&s=ffJSJSNtHbLEIRNzFpH&m=jvI1JjMXKeLULmJ

NASA's Dawn Science Team Presents Early Science Results

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: 2011-319 Oct. 12, 2011

NASA's Dawn Science Team Presents Early Science Results

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-319&cid=release_2011-319

Scientists with NASA's Dawn mission are sharing with other scientists and the
public their early information about the southern hemisphere of the giant asteroid
Vesta. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the
Geological Society of America in Minneapolis, Minn.

Dawn, which has been orbiting Vesta since mid-July, has found that the
asteroid's southern hemisphere boasts one of the largest mountains in the
solar system. Other findings show that Vesta's surface, viewed by Dawn at
different wavelengths, has striking diversity in its composition, particularly around
craters. Science findings also include an in-depth analysis of a set of equatorial
troughs on Vesta and a closer look at the object's intriguing craters. The surface
appears to be much rougher than most asteroids in the main asteroid belt. In
addition, preliminary dates from a method that uses the number of craters
indicate that areas in the southern hemisphere are as young as 1 billion to 2
billion years old, much younger than areas in the north.

Scientists do not yet understand how all the features on Vesta's surface formed,
but they did announce today, after analysis of northern and southern troughs,
that results are consistent with models of fracture formation due to giant impact.
Since July, the Dawn spacecraft has been spiraling closer and closer to Vesta,
moving in to get better and better views of the surface. In early August, the
spacecraft reached an orbital altitude of 1,700 miles (2,700 kilometers) and
mapped most of the sunlit surface, during survey orbit, with its framing camera
and visible and infrared mapping spectrometer.

That phase was completed in late August, and the spacecraft began moving in to
what is known as High Altitude Mapping Orbit at about 420 miles (680
kilometers) above Vesta, which it reached on Sept. 29.

An archive of the live news conference is available for viewing at:
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .

The Dawn scientists also shared their findings at the recent European Planetary
Science Congress and the Division of Planetary Sciences Joint Meeting 2011 in
Nantes, France.

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 the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., 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.

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn
and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov . To follow the mission on Twitter, visit:
http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Dawn .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=lgLSK4ODKcJKI5K&s=jtK0K4MJLfLMJ3OPItH&m=kwJ3LmMZIcLXJrJ

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=otJYLdPPIfIRKfJ&s=jtK0K4MJLfLMJ3OPItH&m=kwJ3LmMZIcLXJrJ

Public Event at Caltech Marks 75th Anniversary of JPL Rocket Tests

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

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

News release: 2011-318 Oct. 11, 2011

Public Event at Caltech Marks 75th Anniversary of JPL Rocket Tests

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-318&cid=release_2011-318

PASADENA, Calif. -- The 75th anniversary of the first rocket experiments at the site that became
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will be celebrated with a special free, public
screening of the new documentary, "The American Rocketeer" at the California Institute of
Technology's Beckman Auditorium on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. This never-before-seen film is
one installment in a three-part documentary series chronicling the early history of JPL. All three
installments will air on KCET Los Angeles in November.

On Halloween day in 1936, a group of Caltech students, led by Frank Malina, conducted the first
stand-up rocket engine test in a dirt gulch known to the residents of Pasadena as the Arroyo. Little
did they know that this day would go down in history as the beginning of what is now JPL, the
world's leading center for robotic exploration of the solar system and beyond. The 90-minute
episode takes viewers on a journey through Malina's life using personal letters, video footage,
drawings and paintings to reveal an extraordinary story of how JPL came to be.

"This is a very personal story about a person few even know," said Blaine Baggett, JPL's director of
communications and education. "Yet Malina was a major pioneer in American rocketry. This film
attempts both to shed light on his important contributions, while revealing the reasons why he has
been forgotten. The time is long since past that the public should know the name Frank Malina."

The Malina story and the other two episodes in the series were produced, written and directed by
Baggett, a national Emmy-award winning documentarian.

Seating at the public screening of "The American Rocketeer" is first-come, first-served. Caltech's
Beckman Auditorium is located at 332 South Michigan Avenue in Pasadena (Michigan Avenue
south of Del Mar Boulevard). For directions and parking information, please visit:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~ope/techinfo/beckman.shtml .

The series, collectively called "Beginnings of the Space Age," will make its television premiere on
KCET over three evenings, as follows: "The American Rocketeer" on Nov. 3 at 9 p.m.; "Explorer
1" on Nov. 10 at 9 p.m.; and "Destination Moon" on Nov. 17 at 9 p.m.

Caltech manages JPL for NASA. More information about JPL is online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov .
Information on how to follow us via social media, including Facebook and Twitter, is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/social .
-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mrLUJ1PHJnKWKeL&s=eeJQKPOpEaICLOPvHoE&m=hjKXKaOPKlJUKeL

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=puJ0KaMTLqJ3IoK&s=eeJQKPOpEaICLOPvHoE&m=hjKXKaOPKlJUKeL

Bring 'Curiosity' Into Your Classroom!

National Mars Education Conference Oct. 11, 2011

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

Bring 'Curiosity' Into Your Classroom!

Date: Friday, Nov. 25 - Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011

Target audience: Educators

Location: Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, Cocoa Beach, Fla. and Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

Overview: Join us for an educator conference surrounding the upcoming launch of the next Mars rover Curiosity. The workshop, scheduled for Nov. 25 through 27, 2011, will be filled with standards-aligned, STEM-related, hands-on activities, mission team speakers, a tour of Kennedy Space Center, a potential launch viewing, and image-rich classroom and other learning materials to take home.

To register, visit: http://marsed.asu.edu/curiosity

Learn more about the next Mars rover Curiosity at: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mrKTI7OKLcIHK6J&s=fpJSKSNtGbJEJRMzEpH&m=hjIXIaNNLgJPIcL

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=puIZJgPWKfLOIgI&s=fpJSKSNtGbJEJRMzEpH&m=hjIXIaNNLgJPIcL

New View of Vesta Mountain From NASA's Dawn Mission

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

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

IMAGE ADVISORY: 2011-317 Oct. 10, 2011

New View of Vesta Mountain From NASA's Dawn Mission

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-317&cid=release_2011-317

A new image from NASA's Dawn spacecraft shows a mountain three times as high as Mt. Everest,
amidst the topography in the south polar region of the giant asteroid Vesta.

The peak of Vesta's south pole mountain, seen in the center of the image, rises about 13 miles (22 kilometers)
above the average height of the surrounding terrain. Another impressive structure is a large
scarp, a cliff with a steep slope, on the right side of this image. The scarp bounds part of the south polar
depression, and the Dawn team's scientists believe features around its base are probably the result of
landslides.

The image is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/multimedia/pia14869.html . It was
created from a shape model of Vesta, and shows an oblique perspective view of the topography of the
south polar region. The image resolution is about 300 meters per pixel, and the vertical scale is 1.5 times that
of the horizontal scale.

Dawn entered orbit around Vesta in July. Members of the mission team will discuss what the spacecraft has
seen so far during a news conference at the Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in
Minneapolis. Among other things, they'll share their hypotheses on the origins of Vesta's curious craters.

The meeting, at the Minneapolis Convention Center, runs from Oct. 9 to 12, with the Dawn news
conference scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 10 a.m. PDT (noon CDT).

The event will air live on the Geological Society of America webcast page at:
http://hosted.mediasite.com/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=e8adbee5a37e455fbe199b29129e3b7c1d .
Media representatives not able to attend the meeting may participate by registering at:
http://rock.geosociety.org/forms/11_pressConf.asp . More information about the webcast is at:
http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/11-63.htm .

The event will also be carried live, with a moderated chat, at: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 .

The news conference panelists are:

Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Paul Schenk, Dawn participating scientist, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston
Debra Buczkowski, Dawn participating scientist, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins
University, Laurel, Md.
Federico Tosi, Dawn Visible and Infrared Spectrometer team member, Italian Space Agency, Rome

Following a year at Vesta, the spacecraft will depart in July 2012 for Ceres, where it will arrive in 2015.
Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., 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 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 .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=idJLKQNmEeKJKVL&s=jtJ0I4PJJfJMI3OPItG&m=kwJ3JgM1IlITLmL

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=lqLRKZOyGhJQI5K&s=jtJ0I4PJJfJMI3OPItG&m=kwJ3JgM1IlITLmL

NASA's Moon Twins Going Their Own Way

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
Cmcall5@mit.edu

News release: 2011-314 Oct. 6, 2011

NASA's Moon Twins Going Their Own Way

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-314&cid=release_2011-314

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-B spacecraft
successfully executed its first flight path correction maneuver Wednesday, Oct. 5. The rocket
burn helped refine the spacecraft's trajectory as it travels from Earth to the moon and provides
separation between itself and its mirror twin, GRAIL-A. The first burn for GRAIL-A occurred
on Sept. 30.

"Both spacecraft are alive and with these burns, prove that they're kicking too, as expected," said
David Lehman, GRAIL project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif. "There is a lot of time and space between now and lunar orbit insertion, but everything is
looking good."

GRAIL-B's rocket burn took place on Oct. 5 at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT). The spacecraft's main
engine burned for 234 seconds and imparted a velocity change of 56.1 mph (25.1 meters per
second) while expending 8.2 pounds (3.7 kilograms) of propellant. GRAIL-A's burn on Sept. 30
also took place at 11 a.m. PDT. It lasted 127 seconds and imparted a 31.3 mph (14 meters per
second) velocity change on the spacecraft while expending 4 pounds (1.87 kilograms) of
propellant.

These burns are designed to begin distancing GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B's arrival times at the
moon by approximately one day and to insert them onto the desired lunar approach paths.

The straight-line distance from Earth to the moon is about 250,000 miles (402,336 kilometers). It
took NASA's Apollo moon crews about three days to cover that distance. Each of the GRAIL
twins is taking about 30 times that long and covering more than 2.5 million miles (4 million
kilometers) to get there. This low-energy, high-cruise time trajectory is beneficial for mission
planners and controllers, as it allows more time for spacecraft checkout. The path also provides a
vital component of the spacecraft's single science instrument, the Ultra Stable Oscillator, to be
continuously powered for several months, allowing it to reach a stable operating temperature
long before beginning the collection of science measurements in lunar orbit.

GRAIL-A will enter lunar orbit on New Year's Eve, and GRAIL-B will follow the next day.
When science collection begins, the spacecraft will transmit radio signals precisely defining the
distance between them as they orbit the moon. 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.

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. Launch management for the mission is the responsibility of NASA's
Launch Services Program at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 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 .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=niKTL6PLKkJYIgK&s=llI4JaORIhIQI9PXKvE&m=frJSK2MBL8IIJ6L

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=qlIZIfMXJnI5KqJ&s=llI4JaORIhIQI9PXKvE&m=frJSK2MBL8IIJ6L

Space Observatory Provides Clues to Creation of Earth's Oceans

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

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

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

News Release: 2011-312 Oct. 5, 2011

Space Observatory Provides Clues to Creation of Earth's Oceans

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-312&cid=release_2011-312

PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers have found a new cosmic source for the same kind of water
that appeared on Earth billions of years ago and created the oceans. The findings may help
explain how Earth's surface ended up covered in water.

New measurements from the Herschel Space Observatory show that comet Hartley 2, which
comes from the distant Kuiper Belt, contains water with the same chemical signature as Earth's
oceans. This remote region of the solar system, some 30 to 50 times as far away as the distance
between Earth and the sun, is home to icy, rocky bodies including Pluto, other dwarf planets and
innumerable comets.

"Our results with Herschel suggest that comets could have played a major role in bringing vast
amounts of water to an early Earth," said Dariusz Lis, senior research associate in physics at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and co-author of a new paper in the journal
Nature, published online today, Oct. 5. "This finding substantially expands the reservoir of Earth
ocean-like water in the solar system to now include icy bodies originating in the Kuiper Belt."

Scientists theorize Earth started out hot and dry, so that water critical for life must have been
delivered millions of years later by asteroid and comet impacts. Until now, none of the comets
previously studied contained water like Earth's. However, Herschel's observations of Hartley 2,
the first in-depth look at water in a comet from the Kuiper Belt, paint a different picture.

Herschel peered into the comet's coma, or thin, gaseous atmosphere. The coma develops as
frozen materials inside a comet vaporize while on approach to the sun. This glowing envelope
surrounds the comet's "icy dirtball"-like core and streams behind the object in a characteristic
tail.

Herschel detected the signature of vaporized water in this coma and, to the surprise of the
scientists, Hartley 2 possessed half as much "heavy water" as other comets analyzed to date. In
heavy water, one of the two normal hydrogen atoms has been replaced by the heavy hydrogen
isotope known as deuterium. The ratio between heavy water and light, or regular, water in
Hartley 2 is the same as the water on Earth's surface. The amount of heavy water in a comet is
related to the environment where the comet formed.

By tracking the path of Hartley 2 as it swoops into Earth's neighborhood in the inner solar system
every six-and-a-`half years, astronomers know that it comes from the Kuiper Belt. The five
comets besides Hartley 2 whose heavy-water-to-regular-water ratios have been obtained all come
from an even more distant region in the solar system called the Oort Cloud. This swarm of
bodies, 10,000 times farther afield than the Kuiper Belt, is the wellspring for most documented
comets.

Given the higher ratios of heavy water seen in Oort Cloud comets compared to Earth's oceans,
astronomers had concluded that the contribution by comets to Earth's total water volume stood at
approximately 10 percent. Asteroids, which are found mostly in a band between Mars and Jupiter
but occasionally stray into Earth's vicinity, looked like the major depositors. The new results,
however, point to Kuiper Belt comets having performed a previously underappreciated service in
bearing water to Earth.

How these objects ever came to possess the telltale oceanic water is puzzling. Astronomers had
expected Kuiper Belt comets to have even more heavy water than Oort Cloud comets because
the latter are thought to have formed closer to the sun than those in the Kuiper Belt. Therefore,
Oort Cloud bodies should have had less frozen heavy water locked in them prior to their ejection
to the fringes as the solar system evolved.

"Our study indicates that our understanding of the distribution of the lightest elements and their
isotopes, as well as the dynamics of the early solar system, is incomplete," said co-author
Geoffrey Blake, professor of planetary science and chemistry at Caltech. "In the early solar
system, comets and asteroids must have been moving all over the place, and it appears that some
of them crash-landed on our planet and made our oceans."

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

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

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=rwL0KiM6KmL0JsJ&s=eeKQLPMpEaKCIONvFoH&m=ikKYI8PMKgI0IoK

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=kpJMKXOEIfKNL8L&s=eeKQLPMpEaKCIONvFoH&m=ikKYI8PMKgI0IoK

NASA Invites Students to Name Moon-Bound Spacecraft

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: 2011-311 October 3, 2011

NASA Invites Students to Name Moon-Bound Spacecraft

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-311&cid=release_2011-311

WASHINGTON -- NASA has a class assignment for U.S. students: help the agency give the twin
spacecraft headed to orbit around the moon new names.

The naming contest is open to students in kindergarten through 12th grade at schools in the United
States. Entries must be submitted by teachers using an online entry form. Length of submissions can
range from a short paragraph to a 500-word essay. The entry deadline is Nov. 11.

NASA's solar-powered Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A and GRAIL-B
spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. on Sept. 10 to begin a three-and-a-
half-month journey to the moon. GRAIL will create a gravity map of the moon using two spacecraft
that orbit at very precise distances. The mission will enable scientists to learn about the moon's
internal structure and composition, and give scientists a better understanding of its origin. Accurate
knowledge of the moon's gravity also could be used to help choose future landing sites.

"A NASA mission to the moon is one of the reasons why I am a scientist today," said GRAIL
Principal Investigator Maria Zuber from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.
"My hope is that GRAIL motivates young people today towards careers in science, math and
technology. Getting involved with naming our two GRAIL spacecraft could inspire their interest not
only in space exploration but in the sciences, and that's a good thing."

Zuber and former astronaut Sally Ride of Sally Ride Science in San Diego will chair the final round
of judging. Sally Ride Science is the lead for GRAIL's MoonKAM program, which enables students
to task cameras aboard the two GRAIL spacecraft to take close-up views of the lunar surface.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of
Technology, manages the GRAIL mission. GRAIL 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 contest rules and more information, visit: http://grail.nasa.gov/contest

The public can email questions to: grailcontest@jpl.nasa.gov

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

For more information about MoonKAM, visit: https://moonkam.ucsd.edu/

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=idKGIPMvHfLILYI&s=lvL4KaMRIhJQJ9NXKvF&m=bdJJIQPpEeKNL0I

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=lqIMIYOHJiJPJ8L&s=lvL4KaMRIhJQJ9NXKvF&m=bdJJIQPpEeKNL0I

Now Accepting Entries! Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Contest

JPL Education Feature Oct. 03, 2011

Now Accepting Entries! Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Contest

Students in grades 5-12 are invited to submit their entries for the fall 2011 Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Contest. Entries are due at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/scientistforaday on Oct. 26 at noon PDT.

The Cassini Scientist for a Day contest challenges students to become NASA scientists studying Saturn. Participants examine three possible observations taken by the Cassini spacecraft and choose the one they think will yield the best scientific results. This choice must be supported in a 500-word essay. Winners and their classmates will participate in a teleconference with scientists from NASA's Cassini mission.

The contest is open to students in grades 5-12, working alone or in groups of up to four students. The essays will be divided into three groups: grades 5-6, 7-8 and 9-12. All submissions must be the students' original work. Each student may submit only one entry, and all entrants will receive a certificate of participation. Winning essays will be posted on the Cassini website, and winners and their classes are invited to participate in a teleconference, videoconference, or webcast question-and-answer session with Cassini scientists. For complete rules, videos, and more information, visit: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/scientistforaday/

Two dozen other countries are running parallel essay contests. Check here to see if your country is participating: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/scientistforaday10thedition/international/countries/

Questions about the contest can be sent to scientistforaday@jpl.nasa.gov

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=otKSJ4PPLlI0LlK&s=eoIQIPPpGaICJOOvFoG&m=kwI1IhMXJiK4JtI

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=joJIIPNvFhJIJXK&s=eoIQIPPpGaICJOOvFoG&m=kwI1IhMXJiK4JtI

NASA Leads Study of Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Loss

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

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

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

News release: 2011-308 Oct. 2, 2011

NASA Leads Study of Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Loss

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-308&cid=release_2011-308

PASADENA, Calif. – A NASA-led study has documented an unprecedented depletion of Earth's
protective ozone layer above the Arctic last winter and spring caused by an unusually prolonged
period of extremely low temperatures in the stratosphere.

The study, published online Sunday, Oct. 2, in the journal Nature, finds the amount of ozone
destroyed in the Arctic in 2011 was comparable to that seen in some years in the Antarctic, where an
ozone "hole" has formed each spring since the mid-1980s. The stratospheric ozone layer, extending
from about 10 to 20 miles (15 to 35 kilometers) above the surface, protects life on Earth from the
sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

The Antarctic ozone hole forms when extremely cold conditions, common in the winter Antarctic
stratosphere, trigger reactions that convert atmospheric chlorine from human-produced chemicals into
forms that destroy ozone. The same ozone-loss processes occur each winter in the Arctic. However,
the generally warmer stratospheric conditions there limit the area affected and the time frame during
which the chemical reactions occur, resulting in far less ozone loss in most years in the Arctic than in
the Antarctic.

To investigate the 2011 Arctic ozone loss, scientists from 19 institutions in nine countries (United
States, Germany, The Netherlands, Canada, Russia, Finland, Denmark, Japan and Spain) analyzed a
comprehensive set of measurements. These included daily global observations of trace gases and
clouds from NASA's Aura and CALIPSO spacecraft; ozone measured by instrumented balloons;
meteorological data and atmospheric models. The scientists found that at some altitudes, the cold
period in the Arctic lasted more than 30 days longer in 2011 than in any previously studied Arctic
winter, leading to the unprecedented ozone loss. Further studies are needed to determine what factors
caused the cold period to last so long.

"Day-to-day temperatures in the 2010-11 Arctic winter did not reach lower values than in previous
cold Arctic winters," said lead author Gloria Manney of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif., and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro. "The
difference from previous winters is that temperatures were low enough to produce ozone-destroying
forms of chlorine for a much longer time. This implies that if winter Arctic stratospheric temperatures
drop just slightly in the future, for example as a result of climate change, then severe Arctic ozone
loss may occur more frequently."

The 2011 Arctic ozone loss occurred over an area considerably smaller than that of the Antarctic
ozone holes. This is because the Arctic polar vortex, a persistent large-scale cyclone within which the
ozone loss takes place, was about 40 percent smaller than a typical Antarctic vortex. While smaller
and shorter-lived than its Antarctic counterpart, the Arctic polar vortex is more mobile, often moving
over densely populated northern regions. Decreases in overhead ozone lead to increases in surface
ultraviolet radiation, which are known to have adverse effects on humans and other life forms.

Although the total amount of Arctic ozone measured was much more than twice that typically seen in
an Antarctic spring, the amount destroyed was comparable to that in some previous Antarctic ozone
holes. This is because ozone levels at the beginning of Arctic winter are typically much greater than
those at the beginning of Antarctic winter.

Manney said that without the 1989 Montreal Protocol, an international treaty limiting production of
ozone-depleting substances, chlorine levels already would be so high that an Arctic ozone hole would
form every spring. The long atmospheric lifetimes of ozone-depleting chemicals already in the
atmosphere mean that Antarctic ozone holes, and the possibility of future severe Arctic ozone loss,
will continue for decades.

"Our ability to quantify polar ozone loss and associated processes will be reduced in the future when
NASA's Aura and CALIPSO spacecraft, whose trace gas and cloud measurements were central to
this study, reach the end of their operational lifetimes," Manney said. "It is imperative that this
capability be maintained if we are to reliably predict future ozone loss in a changing climate."

Other institutions participating in the study included Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine
Research, Potsdam, Germany; NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va.; Royal Netherlands
Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, The Netherlands; Delft University of Technology, 2600 GA Delft,
The Netherlands; Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Greenbelt, Md., and Hampton, Va.;
Science and Technology Corporation, Lanham, Md.; Environment Canada, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada; Central Aerological Observatory, Russia; NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory,
Boulder, Colo.; Arctic Research Center, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland; Danish Climate
Center, Danish Meteorological Institute, Denmark; Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven,
The Netherlands; Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia; National Institute
for Environmental Studies, Japan; National Institute for Aerospace Technology, Spain; and
University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

For more information on NASA's Aura mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/aura . For more
information on NASA's CALIPSO mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/calipso .

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

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mhKOJWOAI8LMIbI&s=ddKOIMOlH9IALLPrFnF&m=dpLNJTMzGfKMK7K

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=pkIUK5PMLbKTKlL&s=ddKOIMOlH9IALLPrFnF&m=dpLNJTMzGfKMK7K