Top Stories: September 2012

Friday, September 28, 2012

Mars Rover Opportunity Working at 'Matijevic Hill'

Thursday, September 27, 2012

NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface

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 / D.C. Agle 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov / agle@jpl.nasa.gov

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

News release: 2012-305 Sept. 27, 2012

NASA Rover Finds Old Streambed on Martian Surface

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-305&cid=release_2012-305

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rover mission has found evidence a stream once ran vigorously across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but this evidence -- images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels -- is the first of its kind.

Scientists are studying the images of stones cemented into a layer of conglomerate rock. The sizes and shapes of stones offer clues to the speed and distance of a long-ago stream's flow.

"From the size of gravels it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep," said Curiosity science co-investigator William Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley. "Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them. This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it."

The finding site lies between the north rim of Gale Crater and the base of Mount Sharp, a mountain inside the crater. Earlier imaging of the region from Mars orbit allows for additional interpretation of the gravel-bearing conglomerate. The imagery shows an alluvial fan of material washed down from the rim, streaked by many apparent channels, sitting uphill of the new finds.

The rounded shape of some stones in the conglomerate indicates long-distance transport from above the rim, where a channel named Peace Vallis feeds into the alluvial fan. The abundance of channels in the fan between the rim and conglomerate suggests flows continued or repeated over a long time, not just once or for a few years.

The discovery comes from examining two outcrops, called "Hottah" and "Link," with the telephoto capability of Curiosity's mast camera during the first 40 days after landing. Those observations followed up on earlier hints from another outcrop, which was exposed by thruster exhaust as Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory Project's rover, touched down.

"Hottah looks like someone jack-hammered up a slab of city sidewalk, but it's really a tilted block of an ancient streambed," said Mars Science Laboratory Project Scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The gravels in conglomerates at both outcrops range in size from a grain of sand to a golf ball. Some are angular, but many are rounded.

"The shapes tell you they were transported and the sizes tell you they couldn't be transported by wind. They were transported by water flow," said Curiosity science co-investigator Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

The science team may use Curiosity to learn the elemental composition of the material, which holds the conglomerate together, revealing more characteristics of the wet environment that formed these deposits. The stones in the conglomerate provide a sampling from above the crater rim, so the team may also examine several of them to learn about broader regional geology.

The slope of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater remains the rover's main destination. Clay and sulfate minerals detected there from orbit can be good preservers of carbon-based organic chemicals that are potential ingredients for life.

"A long-flowing stream can be a habitable environment," said Grotzinger. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though. We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."

During the two-year prime mission of the Mars Science Laboratory, researchers will use Curiosity's 10 instruments to investigate whether areas in Gale Crater have ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, built Curiosity and manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

For more about Curiosity, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

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

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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

NASA to Televise Mars Curiosity Rover Science Update Sept. 27

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 / Guy Webster 818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov / guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

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

Advisory: 2012-302 Sept. 26, 2012

NASA to Televise Mars Curiosity Rover Science Update Sept. 27

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host a news conference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) Thursday, Sept. 27, to present science findings from the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars' Gale Crater. The news conference from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., will be carried live on NASA Television, the agency's website and on Ustream.

Curiosity, also known as the Mars Science Laboratory, is 50 days into a two-year mission to investigate whether conditions may have been favorable for microbial life.

For NASA TV downlink information, schedules and links to streaming video, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

To watch on Ustream, go to: http://ustream.tv/nasajpl .

For information about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mars and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

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Monday, September 24, 2012

Curiosity Finishes Close Inspection of Rock Target

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Shuttle Endeavour Flyby to Bring an Old Friend to JPL

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

News feature: 2012-299 Sept. 20, 2012

Shuttle Endeavour Flyby to Bring an Old Friend to JPL

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-299&cid=release_2012-299

It flew some of the most iconic payloads in the space shuttle program history, including "The Camera
That Saved Hubble" and "The Mission That Mapped the World," both proudly developed by NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Now the spaceship dubbed "America's Best Ever, Space
Shuttle Endeavour" by the Rockwell International technicians, who lovingly assembled and tested her
in California's high desert more than two decades ago, is coming home to roost in Southern California
for a final time this week. The shuttle is set to begin a new life in retirement on permanent display at
the California Science Center in Los Angeles. But before Endeavour makes her final "wheel stop" at
Los Angeles International Airport this Friday, Sept. 21, she'll be paying an aerial house call on some
of her old friends, including JPL.

Weather and operational constraints permitting, Southern Californians will be watching the skies
beginning at 11:30 a.m PDT on Friday, as Endeavour makes low-altitude flyovers in the Los Angeles
area. In addition to JPL, Endeavour is scheduled to pass over such regional landmarks as its future
home at the California Science Center, Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, Disneyland,
The Getty Center, Griffith Observatory, Los Angeles City Hall, the Long Beach Aquarium of the
Pacific, Malibu Beach, the Queen Mary, Universal Studios and Venice Beach, among others.

Endeavour holds a special place in the hearts of many at JPL. After all, this is the shuttle orbiter that
JPLers have had the most interaction with over the years. The lab played key roles in several of
Endeavour's 25 space missions. Among them, JPL built the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2
(WFPC-2) for the first Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission in 1993, the Spaceborne Imaging
Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) payload that flew twice in 1994, the
Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE) and Brilliant Eyes Ten-kelvin Sorption Cryocooler Experiment
(BETSCE) in 1996, the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000 and the Electronic Nose
(ENose) instrument in 2008, among other payloads.

Nicknamed "The Camera That Saved Hubble," WFPC-2 was designed to correct the spherical
aberration of the Hubble Space Telescope's main mirror, discovered after its launch in 1990. It
became the telescope's workhorse camera for nearly 16 years, obtaining 135,000 observations of the
universe.

"WFPC-2 was the instrument that corrected Hubble's vision and restored wide field imaging to the
Hubble," said John Trauger, WFPC-2 principal investigator at JPL. "It was a huge relief. We knew
this was the beginning and not an end; that Hubble's science program could now kick into high gear."

While WFPC-2 gave us new eyes to the universe, another JPL-developed payload allowed us to see
our own world in 3-D for the first time. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) flew aboard
Endeavour in 2000. Its 11-day mission made the first near-global, high-resolution topographical map
of Earth, collecting data on nearly 80 percent of Earth's land surfaces. SRTM revealed for the first
time large, detailed swaths of Earth's topography previously obscured by persistent cloudiness. The
data benefit scientists, engineers, government agencies and the public alike, with applications that
range from land-use planning to virtual Earth exploration.

"SRTM was among the most significant science missions the shuttle ever performed," said Michael
Kobrick, SRTM mission project scientist at JPL. "It's probably the most significant mapping mission
of any single type ever."

SRTM used an improved version of a radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging
Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR), which flew twice on Endeavour in 1994
as the Space Radar Laboratory-1 and -2 missions. The JPL-built SIR-C was coupled with the
German-built X-SAR to image Earth in three different wavelengths. These synthetic aperture radar
were used to study how Earth's global environment is changing, and collected data on terrestrial soil
moisture content, ocean dynamics, volcanism and tectonic activity, as well as soil erosion and
desertification.

"Both SIR-C/X-SAR flights succeeded in acquiring 100 percent of the planned science data," said
Diane Evans, SIR-C project scientist at JPL and now director of JPL's Earth Science & Technology
Directorate. "In addition, mission planners were able to redirect the radars during each flight to take
advantage of rapidly changing conditions on the ground." These included flooding, tropical cyclones
and a volcanic eruption -- in fact, SIR-C/X-SAR data provided the most detailed documentation of a
volcanic eruption ever obtained from orbit up to that time.

Another JPL-developed Endeavour payload was the Inflatable Antenna Experiment (IAE), which
flew in 1996. Built by LaGarde, Tustin, Calif., and managed by JPL, it was mounted on the Spartan-
207 satellite and was the first demonstration of inflatable reflector antenna technology in space. It
deployed a 46-foot- (14-meter) diameter, 98-foot- (30-meter) long mylar inflatable antenna from a
small container the size of a coffee table.

"Bigger than a tennis court, IAE was the largest structure ever erected in space at that time, surpassed
only by SRTM in 2000," said Steven Bard, the IAE project manager at JPL and now manager of
JPL's Earth Science Flight Projects Office. "It was so large that it was actually visible from the
ground by the naked eye as it orbited Earth. I remember how we all ran outside from Mission Control
in Houston and looked up in the sky to see the magnificent sight of the Endeavour, trailed by the IAE,
as they both flew overhead."

Also launched in 1996 on Endeavour was the JPL-developed Brilliant Eyes Ten-kelvin Sorption
Cryocooler Experiment (BETSCE). BETSCE produced small, solid-hydrogen ice cubes at 10 Kelvin
(minus 442 degrees Fahrenheit). The BETSCE cooler pioneered the use of this novel, vibration-free,
refrigeration technology in the microgravity space environment, and enabled its use on future
astrophysics and Earth observation missions. A key accomplishment of the successful BETSCE
demonstration is that it led to JPL's development of two sorption coolers that are currently cooling the
highly-sensitive infrared sensors on the European Space Agency's flagship astrophysics mission,
Planck, which is seeking answers to many fundamental questions about the early history and
evolution of our universe.

"The BETSCE was a prime example of the benefits of the shuttle program as a unique test bed for
demonstrating new technologies in space before you risk flying them on expensive missions," said
Bard, who was the principal investigator and project manager for BETSCE.

The JPL-developed Electronic Nose (ENose), which flew aboard Endeavour in 2008, was an air
quality and event monitor designed to assess the breathing air in a crewed space habitat for dangerous
chemicals that could harm astronaut health. It was installed on the International Space Station. The
ENose can provide early identification and quantification of changes in the atmosphere caused by
leaks or spills of analytes (chemical substances that are the subject of chemical analyses), including
mercury, ammonia, sulfur dioxide, ethanol and benzene.

"The JPL ENose operated continually as a technology demonstration on the International Space
Station for seven months," said JPL senior engineer Margie Homer, the ENose co-investigator.
"While on board, the ENose detected several events of interest, including perfluoropropane and
ethanol. After a successful demonstration, the ENose returned to Earth on space shuttle Discovery."

In addition to the JPL-developed payloads Endeavour took to space, two astronauts who had formerly
worked at JPL flew aboard Endeavour: Jay Apt and Andrew Thomas. Many other JPL employees had
worked on Endeavour in some capacity over the years before coming to JPL.

The Los Angeles-area flyovers mark the final leg of Endeavour's cross-country ferry flight from
NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to Los Angeles International Airport. Endeavour departed
Kennedy on Wed., Sept. 19, mounted atop NASA's modified Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. Following low-
level flyovers of several locations, Endeavour arrived at Ellington Field in Houston, near NASA's
Johnson Space Center, where it spent the night. After departing Houston on Thursday, Sept. 20,
Endeavour made a refueling stop at Biggs Army Airfield in El Paso, Texas, then traveled to NASA's
Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., Thursday afternoon for an
overnight stay.

The final leg of the ferry flight from NASA Dryden on Friday morning, Sept. 21 will include low-
level flyovers of the Lancaster-Palmdale area and several Northern California locations before
concluding with the Los Angeles-area flyovers, including JPL, and a landing at Los Angeles
International Airport around 12:45 p.m. PDT.

After arrival at LAX, Endeavour will be removed from the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and spend a few
weeks at a United Airlines hangar undergoing preparations for transport and display. Endeavour then
will travel through Inglewood and Los Angeles city streets on a 12-mile journey from the airport to
its new permanent home, the California Science Center in Los Angeles, where it is scheduled to
arrive the evening of Oct. 13.

Beginning Oct. 30, the shuttle will be on display in the science center's Samuel Oschin Space Shuttle
Endeavour Display Pavilion, embarking on its new mission to commemorate past achievements in
space and educate and inspire future generations of explorers.

Endeavour was the final space shuttle built, and was constructed from orbiter vehicle structural spare
parts as a replacement for space shuttle Challenger. It completed 25 missions between 1992 and 2011,
spending 299 days in orbit and orbiting Earth 4,671 times while traveling 122,883,151 miles. It was
named after the British sailing ship HMS Endeavour, which Captain James Cook sailed on his first
voyage of discovery.

Social media users are encouraged to share their Endeavour sightings using the hashtags
#spottheshuttle and #OV105, Endeavour's orbiter vehicle designation.

In addition to Endeavour, a number of other prominent JPL missions flew on other space shuttle
orbiters. These included the Shuttle Imaging Radar-A aboard space shuttle Columbia in 1981 and
Shuttle Imaging Radar-B aboard space shuttle Challenger in 1984; Galileo orbital mission to Jupiter,
launched from space shuttle Atlantis in 1989; Magellan orbital mission to Venus, launched from
space shuttle Atlantis in 1989; Ulysses mission to study the sun, launched from space shuttle
Discovery in 1990; the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 1, launched
aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1990; ACRIM2 instrument on the Upper Atmosphere Research
Satellite, launched aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1991; Drop Dynamics Module, launched by
space shuttle Challenger in 1985; Lambda Point Experiment, launched aboard space shuttle Columbia
in 1992; and numerous additional shuttle payloads that flew aboard various space shuttles between
1981 and 1998. Other shuttle astronauts who previously worked for JPL include Stanley Love, John
Olivas, Engene Trinh, Taylor Wang and Stephanie Wilson.

For more on WFPC-2, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/details.php?id=5931 and
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=2144 . For more on SRTM, visit:
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/srtm/ . For more on SIR-C/X-SAR, visit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/details.php?id=5975 . For more on BETSCE, visit:
http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/adv_tech/thermal/ThrSysEng.htm . For more on ENose, visit:
http://enose.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

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Dawn Sees Hydrated Minerals on Giant Asteroid

Quakesim and NASA Mobile App Win NASA Software Award

Help NASA Document the Historical Last Journey of the Space Shuttle Endeavor

September 20, 2012

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

Help NASA Document the Historical Last Journey of the Space Shuttle Endeavor

The end of the active flight missions of the Space Shuttle Program is being celebrated with the transfer of the
space shuttles to various museums for permanent display in an effort to further educate the public about the
successful program. Endeavour will be the last shuttle to be transferred via the shuttle carrier aircraft thus making
it the last time a shuttle will fly, a very historic moment in NASA's history. This last ferry flight will originate from
Kennedy Space Center prior to embarking on the historic last leg of the flight throughout the state of California
into Los Angeles International Airport. We are extremely fortunate to have this rare opportunity to view
Endeavour as she arrives in California.

Goal
To engage the public, specifically the students, in a fun way to document this historical event of the Endeavor
Flyover, while also promoting NASA STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math).

Overview
By reaching out to California School districts, the challenge is for students to take a photograph of the shuttle
flyover and/or during the transport from LAX to the California Science Center.

These pictures can then be uploaded (by teachers) and then a panel of judges will select "winning
photos". Winning photos may be posted on NASA websites, and exhibited for NASA visitor centers and other
education venues, or used for other NASA purposes. There will be an option of having a NASA day at the winning
school sites.

How to Submit Images
* Teachers select the four best photos from their students and upload them to:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/spaceshuttleendeavour/

* Submitted Photos: Reference Name & Location of School and Teacher
* Submission Deadline: 9 NOV 2012

Educator Resources

The public webcast will be held on NASA's DLinfo Channel on September 20, 2012 from 1:30 pm
– 2:30 pm PST. This exciting opportunity will allow unprecedented engagement for students to
learn about the Shuttle and its significance in American History and the future of space
exploration. For those who wish to join the webcast, please visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/dln/webcast/webcast.html

NASA's Digital Learning Network provides science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
or STEM content featuring NASA missions and research. Registration is free. To register and for
a list of other interactive events listed in our catalog or watch our webcasts visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/programs/national/dln/index.html

For Education Resources on the Shuttle Program visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/rocketry/home/shuttle-commem-index.html

Follow Endeavor:
Twitter: @NASA
Hashtags: #spottheshuttle or #OV105
Facebook: NASA
Google+: NASA

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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

NASA Mars Rover Targets Unusual Rock Enroute to First Destination

NASA Telescopes Spy Ultra-Distant Galaxy

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

JPL to Stream Mars Curiosity Telecon

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

DC Agle / Guy Webster 818-393-9011/818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov / guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

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

Advisory: 2012-292b September 18, 2012

JPL to Stream Mars Curiosity Telecon

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-292b&cid=release_2012-292b

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT)
tomorrow (Wednesday, Sept. 19), to provide a status update on the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars'
Gale Crater.

Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory, is 43 days into a two-year mission to investigate whether
conditions may have been favorable for microbial life.

Audio and visuals from the telecon will be streamed live to one of JPL's Ustream.tv channels, at
www.ustream.tv/nasajpl .

Visuals only will be available at the start of the telecon at: http://go.nasa.gov/curiositytelecon .

For more information about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .

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Researchers Brew Up Organics on Ice

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

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

News feature: 2012-293 Sept. 18, 2012

Researchers Brew Up Organics on Ice

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-293&cid=release_2012-293

Would you like icy organics with that? Maybe not in your coffee, but researchers at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., are creating concoctions of
organics, or carbon-bearing molecules, on ice in the lab, then zapping them with lasers.
Their goal: to better understand how life arose on Earth.

In a new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the research team provides
the first direct look at the organic chemistry that takes place on icy particles in the frigid
reaches of our solar system, and in the even chillier places between stars. Scientists think
that the basic ingredients of life, including water and organics, began their journey to
Earth on these lonesome ice particles. The ice and organics would have found their way
into comets and asteroids, which then fell to Earth, delivering "prebiotic" ingredients that
could have jump-started life.

The various steps needed to go from icy organics to slime molds are not clear, but the
new findings help explain how the process works. The lab experiments show that organic
material can begin the processing it needs to become prebiotic -- while still frozen in ice.

"The very basic steps needed for the evolution of life may have started in the coldest
regions of our universe," said Murthy Gudipati, lead author of the new study at JPL. "We
were surprised to see organic chemistry brewing up on ice, at these very cold
temperatures in our lab."

The organics looked at in the study are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs
for short. These carbon-rich molecules can be found on Earth as combustion products: for
example, in barbecue pits, candle soot and even streaming out of the tail pipe of your car. They have also been spotted throughout space in comets, asteroids and more distant objects. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected PAHs in the swirling planet-forming disks around stars, in the spaces between stars and in remote galaxies.

Murthy and his colleague Rui Yang of JPL used their lab setup to mimic the environment
of icy PAH molecules in the quiet cold of space, at temperatures as low as 5 Kelvin
(minus 450 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 268 degrees Celsius). First, they bombarded the
particles with ultraviolet radiation similar to that from stars. Then, to determine the
products of the chemical reaction, they used a type of laser system known as MALDI (for
Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption and Ionization), which involves zapping the ice with
both infrared and ultraviolet lasers.

The results revealed that the PAHs had transformed: they had incorporated hydrogen
atoms into their structure and lost their circular, aromatic bonds, becoming more complex
organics. According to Gudipati, this is the type of change that would need to occur if the
material were to eventually become amino acids and nucleotides -- bits and pieces of
protein and DNA, respectively.

"PAHs are strong, stubborn molecules, so we were surprised to see them undergoing
these chemical changes at such freezing-cold temperatures," said Gudipati.

Another bonus for the research is that it might explain the mystery of why PAHs have not
yet been identified on ice grains in space. While the hardy organics are pervasive in the
cosmos as gases and hot dust, researchers have remained puzzled that their signatures do
not show up on ice. The new findings show that PAHs, once they stick to the ice surface,
are chemically transformed into other complex organics, explaining why they might not
be seen.

While the new results teach us that life's journey could have already begun in the very
cold regions of the universe, another question remains: Did it arise elsewhere beyond our
sun, too? Researchers don't know, but studies like this one help the ongoing search for
life beyond Earth.

The journal article is online at http://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/756/1/L24 .

The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

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Friday, September 14, 2012

NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Reveals Geological Mystery

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

News release: 2012-290 September 14, 2012

NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Reveals Geological Mystery

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's long-lived rover Opportunity has returned an image of the Martian
surface that is puzzling researchers.

Spherical objects concentrated at an outcrop Opportunity reached last week differ in several ways
from iron-rich spherules nicknamed "blueberries" the rover found at its landing site in early 2004 and
at many other locations to date.

Opportunity is investigating an outcrop called Kirkwood in the Cape York segment of the western
rim of Endeavour Crater. The spheres measure as much as one-eighth of an inch (3 millimeters) in
diameter. The analysis is still preliminary, but it indicates that these spheres do not have the high iron
content of Martian blueberries.

"This is one of the most extraordinary pictures from the whole mission," said Opportunity's principal
investigator, Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "Kirkwood is chock full of a dense
accumulation of these small spherical objects. Of course, we immediately thought of the blueberries,
but this is something different. We never have seen such a dense accumulation of spherules in a rock
outcrop on Mars."

The Martian blueberries found elsewhere by Opportunity are concretions formed by action of
mineral-laden water inside rocks, evidence of a wet environment on early Mars. Concretions result
when minerals precipitate out of water to become hard masses inside sedimentary rocks. Many of the
Kirkwood spheres are broken and eroded by the wind. Where wind has partially etched them away, a
concentric structure is evident.

Opportunity used the microscopic imager on its arm to look closely at Kirkwood. Researchers
checked the spheres' composition by using an instrument called the Alpha Particle X-Ray
Spectrometer on Opportunity's arm.

"They seem to be crunchy on the outside, and softer in the middle," Squyres said. "They are different
in concentration. They are different in structure. They are different in composition. They are different
in distribution. So, we have a wonderful geological puzzle in front of us. We have multiple working
hypotheses, and we have no favorite hypothesis at this time. It's going to take a while to work this
out, so the thing to do now is keep an open mind and let the rocks do the talking."

Just past Kirkwood lies another science target area for Opportunity. The location is an extensive pale-
toned outcrop in an area of Cape York where observations from orbit have detected signs of clay
minerals. That may be the rover's next study site after Kirkwood. Four years ago, Opportunity
departed Victoria Crater, which it had investigated for two years, to reach different types of
geological evidence at the rim of the much larger Endeavour Crater.

The rover's energy levels are favorable for the investigations. Spring equinox comes this month to
Mars' southern hemisphere, so the amount of sunshine for solar power will continue increasing for
months.

"The rover is in very good health considering its 8-1/2 years of hard work on the surface of Mars," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Energy production levels are comparable to what they were a full Martian year ago, and we are looking forward to productive spring and summer seasons of exploration."

NASA launched the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity in the summer of 2003, and both completed
their three-month prime missions in April 2004. They continued bonus, extended missions for years. Spirit finished communicating with Earth in March 2010. The rovers have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life.

JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington.

To view the image of the area, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/multimedia/pia16139.html

For more information about Opportunity, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers and
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov .

You can follow the project on Twitter and on Facebook at: http://twitter.com/MarsRovers and
http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers .

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First Planets Found Around Sun-Like Stars in a Cluster

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

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

News release: 2012-289 Sept. 14, 2012

First Planets Found Around Sun-Like Stars in a Cluster

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-289&cid=release_2012-289

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA-funded astronomers have, for the first time, spotted planets
orbiting sun-like stars in a crowded cluster of stars. The findings offer the best evidence yet that
planets can sprout up in dense stellar environments. Although the newfound planets are not
habitable, their skies would be starrier than what we see from Earth.

The starry-skied planets are two so-called hot Jupiters, which are massive, gaseous orbs that are
boiling hot because they orbit tightly around their parent stars. Each hot Jupiter circles a different
sun-like star in the Beehive Cluster, also called the Praesepe, a collection of roughly 1,000 stars
that appear to be swarming around a common center.

The Beehive is an open cluster, or a grouping of stars born at about the same time and out of the
same giant cloud of material. The stars therefore share a similar chemical composition. Unlike
the majority of stars, which spread out shortly after birth, these young stars remain loosely bound
together by mutual gravitational attraction.

"We are detecting more and more planets that can thrive in diverse and extreme environments
like these nearby clusters," said Mario R. Perez, the NASA astrophysics program scientist in the
Origins of Solar Systems Program. "Our galaxy contains more than 1,000 of these open clusters,
which potentially can present the physical conditions for harboring many more of these giant
planets."

The two new Beehive planets are called Pr0201b and Pr0211b. The star's name followed by a "b" is the standard naming
convention for planets.

"These are the first 'b's' in the Beehive," said Sam Quinn, a graduate student in astronomy at
Georgia State University in Atlanta and the lead author of the paper describing the results, which
was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Quinn and his team, in collaboration with David Latham at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics, discovered the planets by using the 1.5-meter Tillinghast telescope at the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory near Amado,
Arizona to measure the slight gravitational wobble the orbiting planets induce upon their host
stars. Previous searches of clusters had turned up two planets around massive stars but none had
been found around stars like our sun until now.

"This has been a big puzzle for planet hunters," Quinn said. "We know that most stars form in
clustered environments like the Orion nebula, so unless this dense environment inhibits planet
formation, at least some sun-like stars in open clusters should have planets. Now, we finally
know they are indeed there."

The results also are of interest to theorists who are trying to understand how hot Jupiters wind up
so close to their stars. Most theories contend these blistering worlds start out much cooler and
farther from their stars before migrating inward.

"The relatively young age of the Beehive cluster makes these planets among the youngest
known," said Russel White, the principal investigator on the NASA Origins of Solar Systems
grant that funded this study. "And that's important because it sets a constraint on how quickly
giant planets migrate inward -- and knowing how quickly they migrate is the first step to figuring
out how they migrate."

The research team suspects planets were turned up in the Beehive cluster because it is rich in
metals. Stars in the Beehive have more heavy elements such as iron than the sun has.

According to White, "Searches for planets around nearby stars suggest that these metals act like
a 'planet fertilizer,' leading to an abundant crop of gas giant planets. Our results suggest this may
be true in clusters as well."

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages NASA's Exoplanet Exploration
Program office. More information about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program is
available at: http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Mars Rover Curiosity Arm Tests Nearly Complete

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

JPL to Stream Mars Curiosity Telecon and Lecture

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 / Guy Webster 818-393-9011/818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov / guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

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

Advisory: 2012-287b September 11, 2012

JPL to Stream Mars Curiosity Telecon and Lecture

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-287&cid=release_2012-287

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT)
tomorrow (Wednesday, Sept. 12), to provide a status update on the Curiosity rover's mission to Mars' Gale Crater.

The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is more than one month into a two-year mission to
investigate whether conditions have been favorable for microbial life and preserving clues in the
rocks about possible past life.

Audio and visuals from the telecon will be streamed live to one of JPL's Ustream.tv channels, at
www.ustream.tv/nasajpl .

Visuals only will be available at the start of the telecon at: http://go.nasa.gov/curiositytelecon .
Also this week, Mars Science Laboratory Project Manager Richard Cook will speak Thursday, Sept. 13 in JPL's von Karman Auditorium.
The lecture, which begins at 7 p.m. PDT (10 p.m. EDT), is open
to the public and will be broadcast live with moderated chat, on JPL's Ustream channel.

For additional options to view live streaming video of Thursday's talk please visit:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures_archive.cfm?year=2012&month=9#NASA . For more
information about NASA's Curiosity mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl .
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NASA Orbiter Observations Point to 'Dry Ice' Snowfall on Mars

Extreme Life Forms Might be Able to Survive on Eccentric Exoplanets

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

Written by Josh Rodriquez
Media contact:
Whitney Clavin (818) 354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

News feature: 2012-285 Sept. 11, 2012

Extreme Life Forms Might Be Able to Survive on Eccentric Exoplanets

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2012-285&cid=release_2012-285

Astronomers have discovered a veritable rogues' gallery of odd exoplanets -- from
scorching hot worlds with molten surfaces to frigid ice balls.

And while the hunt continues for the elusive "blue dot" -- a planet with roughly the same
characteristics as Earth -- new research reveals that life might actually be able to survive
on some of the many exoplanetary oddballs that exist.

"When we're talking about a habitable planet, we're talking about a world where liquid
water can exist," said Stephen Kane, a scientist with the NASA Exoplanet Science
Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "A planet needs to be the
right distance from its star -- not too hot and not too cold." Determined by the size and
heat of the star, this temperature range is commonly referred to as the "habitable zone"
around a star.

Kane and fellow Exoplanet Science Institute scientist Dawn Gelino have created a
resource called the "Habitable Zone Gallery." It calculates the size and distance of the
habitable zone for each exoplanetary system that has been discovered and shows which
exoplanets orbit in this so-called "goldilocks" zone. The Habitable Zone Gallery can be
found at www.hzgallery.org . The study describing the research appears in the
Astrobiology journal and is available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2429 .

But not all exoplanets have Earth-like orbits that remain at a fairly constant distance from
their stars. One of the unexpected revelations of planet hunting has been that many
planets travel in very oblong, eccentric orbits that vary greatly in distance from their
stars.

"Planets like these may spend some, but not all of their time in the habitable zone," Kane
said. "You might have a world that heats up for brief periods in between long, cold
winters, or you might have brief spikes of very hot conditions."

Though planets like these would be very different from Earth, this might not preclude
them from being able to support alien life. "Scientists have found microscopic life forms
on Earth that can survive all kinds of extreme conditions," Kane said. "Some organisms
can basically drop their metabolism to zero to survive very long-lasting, cold conditions.
We know that others can withstand very extreme heat conditions if they have a protective
layer of rock or water. There have even been studies performed on Earth-based spores,
bacteria and lichens, which show they can survive in both harsh environments on Earth
and the extreme conditions of space."

Kane and Gelino's research suggests that habitable zone around stars might be larger than
once thought, and that planets that might be hostile to human life might be the perfect
place for extremophiles, like lichens and bacteria, to survive. "Life evolved on Earth at a
very early stage in the planet's development, under conditions much harsher than they are
today," Kane said.

Kane explained that many life-harboring worlds might not be planets at all, but rather
moons of larger, gas-giant planets like Jupiter in our own solar system. "There are lots of
giant planets out there, and all of them may have moons, if they are like the giant planets
in the solar system," Kane says. "A moon of a planet that is in or spends time in a
habitable zone can be habitable itself."

As an example, Kane mentioned Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, which, despite its
thick atmosphere, is far too distant from the sun and too cold for life as we know it to
exist on its surface. "If you moved Titan closer in to the sun, it would have lots of water
vapor and very favorable conditions for life."

Kane is quick to point out that there are limits to what scientists can presently determine
about habitability on already-discovered exoplanets. "It's difficult to really know about a
planet when you don't have any knowledge about its atmosphere," he said. For example,
both Earth and Venus experience an atmospheric "greenhouse effect" -- but the runaway
effect on Venus makes it the hottest place in the solar system. "Without analogues in our
own solar system, it's difficult to know precisely what a habitable moon or eccentric
planet orbit would look like."

Still, the research suggests that habitability might exist in many forms in the galaxy -- not
just on planets that look like our own. Kane and Gelino are hard at work determining
which already-discovered exoplanets might be candidates for extremophile life or
habitable moons. "There are lots of eccentric and gas giant planet discoveries," Kane
says. "We may find some surprises out there as we start to determine exactly what we
consider habitable."

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

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