Glint of Sunlight Confirms Liquid in Northern Lake District of Titan

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

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

Image advisory: 2009-199 Dec. 17, 2009

Glint of Sunlight Confirms Liquid in Northern Lake District of Titan

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-199&cid=kintera_advisory_2009-199

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight
reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the
moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins.

Cassini scientists had been looking for the glint, also known as a specular reflection, since the
spacecraft began orbiting Saturn in 2004. But Saturn's northern hemisphere, which has more lakes
than the southern hemisphere, has been veiled in winter darkness. The sun only began to directly
illuminate the northern lakes recently as it approached the equinox of August 2008, the start of
spring in the northern hemisphere. Titan's hazy atmosphere also blocked out reflections of
sunlight in most wavelengths. This serendipitous image was captured on July 8, 2009, using
Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer.

The new infrared image is available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://wwwvims.lpl.arizona.edu.

This image will be presented Friday, Dec. 18, at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical
Union in San Francisco.

"This one image communicates so much about Titan -- thick atmosphere, surface lakes and an
otherworldliness," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist, based at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "It's an unsettling combination of strangeness yet
similarity to Earth. This picture is one of Cassini's iconic images."

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has captivated scientists because of its many similarities to Earth.
Scientists have theorized for 20 years that Titan's cold surface hosts seas or lakes of liquid
hydrocarbons, making it the only other planetary body besides Earth believed to harbor liquid on
its surface. While data from Cassini have not indicated any vast seas, they have revealed large
lakes near Titan's north and south poles.

In 2008, Cassini scientists using infrared data confirmed the presence of liquid in Ontario Lacus,
the largest lake in Titan's southern hemisphere. But they were still looking for the smoking gun to
confirm liquid in the northern hemisphere, where lakes are also larger.

Katrin Stephan, of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Berlin, an associate member of the
Cassini visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team, was processing the initial image and was
the first to see the glint on July 10th.

"I was instantly excited because the glint reminded me of an image of our own planet taken from
orbit around Earth, showing a reflection of sunlight on an ocean," Stephan said. "But we also had
to do more work to make sure the glint we were seeing wasn't lightning or an erupting volcano."

Team members at the University of Arizona, Tucson, processed the image further, and scientists
were able to compare the new image to radar and near-infrared-light images acquired from 2006
to 2008.

They were able to correlate the reflection to the southern shoreline of a lake called Kraken Mare.
The sprawling Kraken Mare covers about 400,000 square kilometers (150,000 square miles), an
area larger than the Caspian Sea, the largest lake on Earth. It is located around 71 degrees north
latitude and 337 degrees west latitude.

The finding shows that the shoreline of Kraken Mare has been stable over the last three years and
that Titan has an ongoing hydrological cycle that brings liquids to the surface, said Ralf Jaumann,
a visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team member who leads the scientists at the DLR
who work on Cassini. Of course, in this case, the liquid in the hydrological cycle is methane
rather than water, as it is on Earth.

"These results remind us how unique Titan is in the solar system," Jaumann said. "But they also
show us that liquid has a universal power to shape geological surfaces in the same way, no matter
what the liquid is."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and
the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The visual
and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=iqLPITNtHcIRK9J&s=gqLUKVPxGcIGIUMDJqG&m=klJRJcOWIhI5E

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ljIVI2PFJfKYIjI&s=gqLUKVPxGcIGIUMDJqG&m=klJRJcOWIhI5E

Call for Proposals

Call for Proposals
Dec. 15, 2009

NASA is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host a
live, in-flight education downlink during STS-131, the flight of educator and Mission Specialist Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger.
To maximize these downlink opportunities, NASA is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants
and make a large-scale impact on education. Educational themes for the STS-131 mission include robotics and attracting
and retaining girls in STEM disciplines.

Opportunity

During the STS-131 mission, Metcalf-Lindenburger and selected crew members will participate in downlinks. Downlinks are
approximately 20 minutes in length and allow students and educators to interact with the crew aboard the space shuttle through
a question and answer session. A downlink is a modified video conference in which participants see and hear the crew members
live from space, but the crew does not see the audience. Downlinks afford education audiences the opportunity to learn first-hand
from astronauts what it is like to live and work in space. Downlinks are broadcast live on NASA TV. Downlinks can happen any day
during the mission and are not always scheduled during normal business hours. Because of the nature of human spaceflight, hosts
must have maximum flexibility to accommodate changes in downlink dates and times.

Background

No earlier than March 18, 2010, the STS-131 crew will launch into space aboard space shuttle Discovery. The shuttle will deliver a
Multi-Purpose Logistics Module filled with science racks to be transferred to the laboratories of the International Space Station. U.S.
Navy Captain Alan Poindexter will command the seven-person crew of STS-131. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel James Dutton Jr. will
serve as Discovery's pilot. Mission specialists are NASA astronauts Rick Mastracchio, Clay Anderson, Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger and
Stephanie Wilson, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Naoko Yamazaki. Dutton, Metcalf-Lindenburger and
Yamazaki will be making their first trip to space.

Who Can Host a Downlink?

Members of the U.S. formal and informal education communities are eligible to host a downlink. Examples include museums and science centers,
local school districts, national and regional education organizations, and local, state and U.S. government agencies. NASA provides this
opportunity at no cost to the host organization. Downlinks support national education standards and initiatives.

What You Need to Host a Downlink

To host a downlink, you need to receive NASA TV and have two dedicated telephone lines. The audio for the downlink is received through a
telephone line. The second telephone line is needed so that NASA audio technicians have direct access to the host organization's technical
point of contact. The video is received through NASA TV. A LIMO channel is the preferred way to receive the video feed; however, receiving the
feed through satellite or cable channels is also acceptable.

Review of Submitted Material

NASA is committed to inspiring the next generation of explorers. Proposals will be reviewed for relevance to the education community, education
content, diversity of participants, continuity, and community involvement. Successful proposals will articulate how the host organization will maximize this opportunity.

Process and Deadline

The deadline to submit a proposal for an STS-131 downlink is Jan. 6, 2010 . Proposals must be submitted electronically to Teaching From Space, or
TFS, a NASA Education office. A committee will review all proposals and notify organizations of their status. TFS personnel will work with the host to
plan the downlink. Interested parties should contact TFS to obtain information related to program expectations, content, format, audience, application
guidelines and forms by sending an e-mail to JSC-TFS-STS-131@mail.nasa.gov .

Opportunities

Surrounding the Flight Numerous opportunities will be available for formal and informal education communities to be actively engaged in the STS-131 mission.
Information on the mission and related education activities can be found at www.nasa.gov/education/robotics .

- end -

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hfILKWNAKbIJL3K&s=ggIUIVPxEcLGKUMDKqE&m=jkINL8PPIcI3F

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ksJRK5OMIeLQJdJ&s=ggIUIVPxEcLGKUMDKqE&m=jkINL8PPIcI3F

NASA Outlines Recent Breakthroughs in Greenhouse Gas Research

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

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

News release: 2009-196 Dec. 15, 2009

NASA Outlines Recent Breakthroughs in Greenhouse Gas Research

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-196&cid=kintera_release_2009-196

PASADENA, Calif. -- Researchers studying carbon dioxide, a leading greenhouse gas and a key
driver of global climate change, now have a new tool at their disposal: daily global measurements of
carbon dioxide in a key part of our atmosphere. The data are courtesy of the Atmospheric Infrared
Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft.

Moustafa Chahine, the instrument's science team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., unveiled the new product at a briefing on recent breakthroughs in greenhouse gas,
weather and climate research from AIRS at this week's American Geophysical Union meeting in San
Francisco. The new data have been extensively validated against both aircraft and ground-based
observations. They give users daily and monthly measurements of the concentration and distribution
of carbon dioxide in the mid-troposphere--the region of the atmosphere located between 5 and 12
kilometers, or 3 to 7 miles, above Earth's surface, and track its global transport. Users can also access
historical AIRS carbon dioxide data spanning the mission's entire seven-plus years in orbit. The
product represents the first-ever release of global daily carbon dioxide data that are based solely on
observations.

"AIRS provides the highest accuracy and yield of any global carbon dioxide data set available to the
research community, now and for the immediate future," said Chahine. "It will help researchers
understand how this elusive, long-lived greenhouse gas is distributed and transported, and can be
used to develop better models to identify 'sinks,' regions of the Earth system that store carbon
dioxide. It's important to study carbon dioxide in all levels of the troposphere."

Chahine said previous AIRS research data have led to some key findings about mid-tropospheric
carbon dioxide. For example, the data have shown that, contrary to prior assumptions, carbon dioxide
is not well mixed in the troposphere, but is rather "lumpy." Until now, models of carbon dioxide
transport have assumed its distribution was uniform.

Carbon dioxide is transported in the mid-troposphere from its sources to its eventual sinks.
More carbon dioxide is emitted in the heavily populated northern hemisphere than in its less
populated southern counterpart. As a result, the southern hemisphere is a net recipient, or sink, for
carbon dioxide from the north. AIRS data have previously shown the complexity of the southern
hemisphere's carbon dioxide cycle, revealing a never-before-seen belt of carbon dioxide that circles
the globe and is not reflected in transport models.

In another major finding, scientists using AIRS data have removed most of the uncertainty about the
role of water vapor in atmospheric models. The data are the strongest observational evidence to date
for how water vapor responds to a warming climate.

"AIRS temperature and water vapor observations have corroborated climate model predictions that
the warming of our climate produced as carbon dioxide levels rise will be greatly exacerbated -- in
fact, more than doubled -- by water vapor," said Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M
University, College Station, Texas.

Dessler explained that most of the warming caused by carbon dioxide does not come directly from
carbon dioxide, but from effects known as feedbacks. Water vapor is a particularly important
feedback. As the climate warms, the atmosphere becomes more humid. Since water is a greenhouse
gas, it serves as a powerful positive feedback to the climate system, amplifying the initial warming.
AIRS measurements of water vapor reveal that water greatly amplifies warming caused by increased
levels of carbon dioxide. Comparisons of AIRS data with models and re-analyses are in excellent
agreement.

"The implication of these studies is that, should greenhouse gas emissions continue on their current
course of increase, we are virtually certain to see Earth's climate warm by several degrees Celsius in
the next century, unless some strong negative feedback mechanism emerges elsewhere in Earth's
climate system," Dessler said.

Originally designed to observe atmospheric temperature and water vapor, AIRS data are already
responsible for the greatest improvement to five- to six-day weather forecasts than any other single
instrument, said Chahine. JPL scientists have shown a major consequence of global warming will be
an increase in the frequency and strength of severe storms. Earlier this year, a team of NASA
researchers showed how AIRS can significantly improve tropical cyclone forecasting. The researchers
studied deadly Typhoon Nargis in Burma in May 2008. They found the uncertainty in the cyclone's
landfall position could have been reduced by a factor of six had more sophisticated AIRS
temperature data been used in the forecasts.

AIRS observes and records the global daily distribution of temperature, water vapor, clouds and
several atmospheric gases including ozone, methane and carbon monoxide. With the addition of the
mid-tropospheric carbon dioxide data set this week, a seven-year digital record is now complete for
use by the scientific community and the public.

For more on AIRS, see http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

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=muIVJbPTKlLZIiI&s=ffLSLSMtGbJELRPzHpE&m=deIBJRMuF6JPH

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=fdJHKQNrEeKMKYL&s=ffLSLSMtGbJELRPzHpE&m=deIBJRMuF6JPH

NASA Data Reveal Major Groundwater Loss in California's Heartland

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

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

News release: 2009-194 Dec. 14, 2009

NASA Data Reveal Major Groundwater Loss in California's Heartland

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-194&cid=kintera_release_2009-194

PASADENA, Calif. - New space observations reveal that since October 2003, the aquifers for
California's primary agricultural region -- the Central Valley -- and its major mountain water source --
the Sierra Nevadas -- have lost nearly enough water combined to fill Lake Mead, America's largest
reservoir. The findings, based on data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery
and Climate Experiment (Grace), reflect California's extended drought and increased rates of
groundwater being pumped for human uses, such as irrigation.

In research being presented this week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco,
scientists from NASA and the University of California, Irvine, detailed California's groundwater
changes and outlined Grace-based research on other global aquifers. The twin Grace satellites monitor
tiny month-to-month changes in Earth's gravity field primarily caused by the movement of water in
Earth's land, ocean, ice and atmosphere reservoirs. Grace's ability to directly 'weigh' changes in water
content provides new insights into how Earth's water cycle may be changing.

Combined, California's Sacramento and San Joaquin drainage basins have shed more than 30 cubic
kilometers of water since late 2003, said professor Jay Famiglietti of the University of California,
Irvine. A cubic kilometer is about 264.2 billion gallons, enough to fill 400,000 Olympic-size pools.
The bulk of the loss occurred in California's agricultural Central Valley. The Central Valley receives
its irrigation from a combination of groundwater pumped from wells and surface water diverted from
elsewhere.

"Grace data reveal groundwater in these basins is being pumped for irrigation at rates that are not
sustainable if current trends continue," Famiglietti said. "This is leading to declining water tables,
water shortages, decreasing crop sizes and continued land subsidence. The findings have major
implications for the U.S. economy, as California's Central Valley is home to one sixth of all U.S.
irrigated land, and the state leads the nation in agricultural production and exports."

"By providing data on large-scale groundwater depletion rates, Grace can help California water
managers make informed decisions about allocating water resources," said Grace Project Scientist
Michael Watkins of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., which manages the mission
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.

Preliminary studies show most of the water loss is coming from the more southerly located San
Joaquin basin, which gets less precipitation than the Sacramento River basin farther north. Initial
results suggest the Sacramento River basin is losing about 2 cubic kilometers of water a year. Surface
water losses account for half of this, while groundwater losses in the northern Central Valley add
another 0.6 cubic kilometers annually. The San Joaquin Basin is losing 3.5 cubic kilometers a year. Of
this, more than 75 percent is the result of groundwater pumping in the southern Central Valley,
primarily to irrigate crops.

Famiglietti said recent California legislation decreasing the allocation of surface waters to the San
Joaquin Basin is likely to further increase the region's reliance on groundwater for irrigation. "This
suggests the decreasing groundwater storage trends seen by Grace will continue for the foreseeable
future," he said.

The California results come just months after a team of hydrologists led by Matt Rodell of NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., found groundwater levels in northwest India have
declined by 17.7 cubic kilometers per year over the past decade, a loss due almost entirely to pumping
and consumption of groundwater by humans.

"California and India are just two of many regions around the world where Grace data are being used
to study droughts, which can have devastating impacts on societies and cost the U.S. economy $6 to
$8 billion annually," said Rodell. Other regions under study include Australia, the Middle East -
North Africa region and the southeastern United States, where Grace clearly captured the evolution
of an extended drought that ended this spring. In the Middle East - North Africa region, Rodell is
leading an effort to use Grace and other data to systematically map water- and weather-related
variables to help assess regional water resources. Rodell added Grace may also help predict droughts,
since it can identify pre-existing conditions favorable to the start of a drought, such as a deficit of
water deep below the ground.

NASA is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln to incorporate Grace data into NOAA's U.S. and North American Drought
Monitors, premier tools used to minimize drought impacts. The tools rely heavily on precipitation
observations, but are limited by inadequate large-scale observations of soil moisture and groundwater
levels. "Grace is the only satellite system that provides information on these deeper stores of water
that are key indicators of long-term drought," Rodell said.

Grace is a partnership of NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The University of Texas
Center for Space Research, Austin, has overall mission responsibility. JPL developed the satellites.
DLR provided the launch, and GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, Germany, operates the mission. For
more on Grace, see http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/ and http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/ . Other media
contacts: Margaret Baguio, University of Texas Center for Space Research, 512-471-6922; Jennifer
Fitzenberger, University of California, Irvine, 949-824-3969.

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=fnKGINMrHfLQL3I&s=iiLYJ1MFIeKKK0PLKsH&m=knLRJSPoFcKRF

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=kiJQK2OLIlLSJ9J&s=iiLYJ1MFIeKKK0PLKsH&m=knLRJSPoFcKRF

NASA's WISE Eye on the Universe Begins All-Sky Survey Mission

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 818-354-4673/818-354-5011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

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

News release: 2009-193 Dec. 14, 2009

NASA's WISE Eye on the Universe Begins All-Sky Survey Mission

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-193&cid=kintera_release_2009-193

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or
WISE, lifted off over the Pacific Ocean this morning on its way to map the entire sky in infrared
light.

A Delta II rocket carrying the spacecraft launched at 6:09 a.m. PST (9:09 a.m. EST) from
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The rocket deposited WISE into a polar orbit 326 miles
above Earth.

"WISE thundered overhead, lighting up the pre-dawn skies," said William Irace, the mission's project
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "All systems are looking good,
and we are on our way to seeing the entire infrared sky better than ever before."

Engineers acquired a signal from the spacecraft via NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite
System just 10 seconds after the spacecraft separated from the rocket. Approximately three minutes
later, WISE re-oriented itself with its solar panels facing the sun to generate its own power. The next
major event occurred about 17 minutes later. Valves on the cryostat, a chamber of super-cold
hydrogen ice that cools the WISE instrument, opened. Because the instrument sees the infrared, or
heat, signatures of objects, it must be kept at chilly temperatures. Its coldest detectors are less than
minus 447 degrees Fahrenheit.

"WISE needs to be colder than the objects it's observing," said Ned Wright of UCLA, the mission's
principal investigator. "Now we're ready to see the infrared glow from hundreds of thousands of
asteroids, and hundreds of millions of stars and galaxies."

With the spacecraft stable, cold and communicating with mission controllers at JPL, a month-long
checkout and calibration is underway.

WISE will see the infrared colors of the whole sky with sensitivity and resolution far better than the
last infrared sky survey, performed 26 years ago. The space telescope will spend nine months
scanning the sky once, then one-half the sky a second time. The primary mission will end when
WISE's frozen hydrogen runs out, about 10 months after launch.

Just about everything in the universe glows in infrared, which means the mission will catalog a
variety of astronomical targets. Near-Earth asteroids, stars, planet-forming disks and distant galaxies
all will be easy for the mission to see. Hundreds of millions of objects will populate the WISE atlas,
providing astronomers and other space missions, such as NASA's planned James Webb Space
Telescope, with a long-lasting infrared roadmap.

JPL manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. The mission was competitively selected under the Explorers Program, managed by
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the
Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace &
Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
NASA's Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., managed the payload
integration and the launch service.

More information about the WISE mission is available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/wise,
http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise .

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=igIMIVOFJmJVJaL&s=jtL0L4OJIfJMK3PPLtH&m=knJRIRPpFjJWF

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ltKSJ4PRLpI2LkK&s=jtL0L4OJIfJMK3PPLtH&m=knJRIRPpFjJWF

NASA's WISE Set to Blast Off and Map the Skies

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

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

News release: 2009-188 Dec. 9, 2009

NASA's WISE Set to Blast Off and Map the Skies

PASADENA, Calif. -- The countdown clock is ticking, with just days to go before the Wide-field
Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, rockets into space on a mission to map the entire sky in infrared
light.

NASA's newest spacecraft is currently perched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket at
Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Santa Barbara, Calif. It is scheduled to roar into space at dawn
on Dec. 11, at 6:09:33 a.m. PST (9:09:33 a.m. EST), on a short journey to its final Earth-circling orbit
525 kilometers (326 miles) overhead.

After a one-month checkout, the mission will spend the next nine months mapping the cosmos in
infrared light. It will cover the whole sky one-and-a-half times, snapping millions of pictures of
everything from near-Earth asteroids to faraway galaxies bursting with new stars.

"The last time we mapped the whole sky at these particular infrared wavelengths was 26 years ago,"
said Edward (Ned) Wright of UCLA, who is the principal investigator of the mission. "Infrared
technology has come a long way since then. The old all-sky infrared pictures were like impressionist
paintings -- now, we'll have images that look like actual photographs."

At liftoff, the main Delta II engine and three solid-motor boosters will ignite, providing a total liftoff
thrust of more than 1,812,000 newtons (407,000 pounds). The rocket will tilt toward the south, cross
the California coastline and head out over the Pacific Ocean. At one minute and 39 seconds after
launch, the three spent boosters will fall away from the rocket. Two minutes and 45 seconds later, the
main engine will cut off, and 14 seconds later, the vehicle's second stage will ignite. At four minutes
and 56 seconds after liftoff, the "fairing" covering the satellite will split open like a clamshell and fall
away.

The second stage of the rocket will then cut off, reigniting again 52 minutes after launch. It will shut
down a second time and then, at about 55 minutes after launch, the spacecraft will reach its final orbit
and separate from the rocket. Engineers expect to pick up a signal from WISE anywhere from about
one to 10 minutes after separation.

The next major event will occur about 20 minutes after separation -- the valves on the spacecraft's
cryostat will automatically open. The cryostat houses and chills the telescope and infrared detectors
with tanks of frozen hydrogen. Valves on the cryostat are opened after launch to allow boiled-off
hydrogen to escape, thereby preventing the instrument from warming up.

"It is important to relieve the pressure due to the warming hydrogen as soon as possible," said William
Irace, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "By
venting the hydrogen to space, we cool our instrument down to extremely low temperatures so that
the eyes of WISE won't be blinded by their own heat."

After the spacecraft is checked out and calibrated, it will begin the task of surveying the whole sky.
This will take about six months, after which the spacecraft will begin to sweep the sky a second time,
covering about one-half before the frozen coolant runs out. The mission's primary lifetime is expected
to be about 10 months.

The closest of the mission's finds will be asteroids and comets with orbits that come relatively close to
Earth's path around the sun. These are called near-Earth objects. The infrared explorer will provide
size and composition information about hundreds of these objects, giving us a better idea of their
diversity. How many are dark like coal, and how many are shiny and bright? And how do their sizes
differ? The mission will help answer these questions through its infrared observations, which provide
information that can't be obtained using visible-light telescopes.

"We can help protect our Earth by learning more about the diversity of potentially hazardous asteroids
and comets," said Amy Mainzer, deputy project scientist for the mission at JPL.

The farthest of the mission's targets are powerful galaxies that are either churning out loads of new
stars or dominated by voracious black holes. These galaxies are shrouded in dust, and often can't be
seen in visible light. WISE will expose millions, and may even find the most energetic, or luminous,
galaxy in the universe.

"WISE can see these dusty objects so far away that we will be looking back in time 10 billion years,
when galaxies were forming," said Peter Eisenhardt, the mission's project scientist at JPL. "By
scanning the entire sky, we'll learn just how extreme this galaxy formation process can get."

JPL manages the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. The mission's principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was
competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight
Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan,
Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science
operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

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

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hgLTK6OBKfJPI4K&s=ffJSJSPtGbLEKRMzFpF&m=kdKOKPPkE6IPE

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ktJZLfPNIiIWKeJ&s=ffJSJSPtGbLEKRMzFpF&m=kdKOKPPkE6IPE

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness

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

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

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

IMAGE/VIDEO ADVISORY:2009-187 December 9, 2009

Saturn's Mysterious Hexagon Emerges from Winter Darkness

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2009-187&cid=advisory_2009-187

After waiting years for the sun to illuminate Saturn's north pole again, cameras aboard
NASA's Cassini spacecraft have captured the most detailed images yet of the intriguing
hexagon shape crowning the planet.

The new images of the hexagon, whose shape is the path of a jet stream flowing around the
north pole, reveal concentric circles, curlicues, walls and streamers not seen in previous
images. Images and the three-frame animation are available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini ,
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://ciclops.org .

The last visible-light images of the entire hexagon were captured by NASA's Voyager
spacecraft nearly 30 years ago, the last time spring began on Saturn. After the sunlight faded,
darkness shrouded the north pole for 15 years. Much to the delight and bafflement of Cassini
scientists, the location and shape of the hexagon in the latest images match up with what they
saw in the Voyager pictures.

"The longevity of the hexagon makes this something special, given that weather on Earth
lasts on the order of weeks," said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at the
California Institute of Technology. "It's a mystery on par with the strange weather conditions
that give rise to the long-lived Great Red Spot of Jupiter."

The hexagon was originally discovered in images taken by the Voyager spacecraft in the early
1980s. It encircles Saturn at about 77 degrees north latitude and has been estimated to have a
diameter wider than two Earths. The jet stream is believed to whip along the hexagon at
around 100 meters per second (220 miles per hour).

Early hexagon images from Voyager and ground-based telescopes suffered from poor
viewing perspectives. Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, has a better angle
for viewing the north pole. But the long darkness of Saturnian winter hid the hexagon from
Cassini's visible-light cameras for years. Infrared instruments, however, were able to obtain
images by using heat patterns. Those images showed the hexagon is nearly stationary and
extends deep into the atmosphere. They also discovered a hotspot and cyclone in the same
region.

The visible-light cameras of Cassini's imaging science subsystem, which have higher
resolution than the infrared instruments and the Voyager cameras, got their long-awaited
glimpse of the hexagon in January, as the planet approached equinox. Imaging team scientists
calibrated and stitched together 55 images to create a mosaic and three-frame movie. The
mosaics do not show the region directly around the north pole because it had not yet fully
emerged from winter night at that time.

Scientists are still trying to figure out what causes the hexagon, where it gets and expels its
energy and how it has stayed so organized for so long. They plan to search the new images
for clues, taking an especially close look at the newly identified waves that radiate from the
corners of the hexagon -- where the jet takes its hardest turns -- and the multi-walled
structure that extends to the top of Saturn's cloud layer in each of the hexagon's six sides.
Scientists are also particularly intrigued by a large dark spot that appeared in a different
position in a previous infrared image from Cassini. In the latest images, the spot appears in
the 2 o'clock position.

Because Saturn does not have land masses or oceans on its surface to complicate weather the
way Earth does, its conditions should give scientists a more elementary model to study the
physics of circulation patterns and atmosphere, said Kevin Baines, an atmospheric scientist at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., who has studied the hexagon with
Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer.

"Now that we can see undulations and circular features instead of blobs in the hexagon, we
can start trying to solve some of the unanswered questions about one of the most bizarre
things we've ever seen in the solar system," Baines said. "Solving these unanswered
questions about the hexagon will help us answer basic questions about weather that we're still
asking about our own planet."

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

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=lkI1JgPWKjLQIgI&s=lvL4IaORIhLQJ9NXKvH&m=slK4KaOUJpJ9E

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=edJNKVNuEcKDKWL&s=lvL4IaORIhLQJ9NXKvH&m=slK4KaOUJpJ9E

Watch Live as Kids Test Their Inventions in Annual Challenge

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

Carolina Martinez 818-354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
carolina.martinez@jpl.nasa.gov

Internet Advisory: 2009-184b Dec. 7, 2009

Watch Live as Kids Test Their Inventions in Annual Challenge

Tune in to see middle- and high-school teams showcase their inventions – cardboard bridges
capable of carrying up to 235 pounds (107 kilograms), in this year's Invention Challenge hosted
by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The live event will air on the "NASAJPL" channel available on Ustream TV at:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasajpl on Dec. 11 starting at 11:30 a.m. PST (2:30 p.m. EST and
1930 UTC).

Twenty student teams from throughout Southern California will watch to see if their bridges
remain standing as bricks get piled on. Ten teams of JPL engineers and scientists will also
compete in this friendly but challenging contest.

The bridges must meet certain requirements: they must be made of cardboard or paper products,
use reasonable amounts of glue, span a 1.2 meter (48 inch) gap, and be no more than 45.7
centimeters (18 inches) wide. The bridges must carry standard-sized bricks (between one and 44)
that weigh about 2.42 kilograms (5.35 pounds) each.

More information about the Invention Challenge is available at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/inventionchallenge/2009/ .

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is managed by the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena.

-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=edKMIUMuHgLHLWI&s=eoLQLPNpFaLCLOMvFoG&m=tmK4KiO1JiJ7F

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hgISI3OGJjJOJ6L&s=eoLQLPNpFaLCLOMvFoG&m=tmK4KiO1JiJ7F

What Are Your Summer Plans? Application Now Online for JPL High School Internships

What Are Your Summer Plans? Application Now Online for JPL High School Internships

Believe it or not, it's time to start thinking about summer internships. JPL is looking for a few highly
motivated high school students who have a strong interest in and aptitude for science, technology, engineering and/or math.

One of the main objectives of the JPL Summer High School Internship Program (JPL SpaceSHIP) is to
encourage pre-college students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the science and engineering fields.
JPL SpaceSHIP runs for eight weeks during the summer of 2010. Applicants must be at least 16 when the program starts.
They must also live within a 50-mile radius of JPL, which is located in Pasadena, Calif., and have a 3.0 GPA.

Here are some examples of projects SpaceSHIP students worked on last summer:

- Developed strategies for social media Web sites

JPL missions and projects want to be part of social media too. Students worked with a variety of projects to create plans
for connecting with the public on social media sites, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

- Worked with databases and software

Several students tested and evaluated database systems. Another participant helped develop procedures for software testing.

- Evaluated and updated data and computer models

Some students analyzed and classified science data. Others updated models for a future spacecraft's flight path.

Each student has a mentor -- a NASA/JPL scientist, engineer or staff member who provides guidance about the project and answers
questions about careers in science and engineering.

For more details about this opportunity, please visit http://jplspaceship.jpl.nasa.gov.

- end -

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=ihKUJZOAIeLKI6I&s=mmJ6LdOVJiKSJcN1KwH&m=tmL3LcOXKmJaG

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=luI0K8PMLhKRKgL&s=mmJ6LdOVJiKSJcN1KwH&m=tmL3LcOXKmJaG

WISE Mission: Teacher Resources and Upcoming Teacher Workshop

Save the Date: Educator Workshop


JPL and the WISE Project will be conducting an educator workshop at JPL on Saturday, January 23, 2010. Space will be limited so save the date. Additional details will soon be sent to this mailing list and posted on the JPL Education Gateway (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education)) and at the WISE Education & Outreach page ( http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/education_workshop.html (http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/education_workshop.html)).

Get 'WISE' About Teaching Infrared

By Art Hammon

Art Hammon develops NASA/JPL resources for K - 12 schools that focus on space exploration, science and mathematics. Before working at JPL, Art was a middle and high school science teacher for 25 years in New Hampshire.

The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is scheduled to launch into space in December 2009 on a mission to use its infrared telescope to survey the entire sky. This means the mission will use heat given off by objects in space to "see" them.

The WISE mission is expected to find a wide range of as-yet undetected objects in our solar system and beyond. This should include about 100,000 new asteroids in the main asteroid belt; hundreds of near-Earth objects (comets or asteroids whose orbits take them relatively close to Earth); cool stars; planet-building disks in the Milky Way galaxy; and the universe's most luminous galaxies.

Teaching Resources:
A good way to bring a cool mission like WISE into the classroom is to focus on how we use infrared to study the universe.

Kindergarten - 3rd Grade
Infrared Zoo
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_zoo/index.html (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_zoo/index.html)
See animals by the heat they give off. Follow that with the Space Place activity below that shows infrared pictures.

Space Place Infrared Images
http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/sirtf1/sirtf_action.shtml (http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/sirtf1/sirtf_action.shtml) and http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/aster_do1.shtml (http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/en/kids/aster_do1.shtml )
Young children's activities about infrared light.

Infrared Hide-and-Seek
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_games/hide_seek/index.html (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_games/hide_seek/index.html)
This activity is just for fun for younger children.

5th - 8th Grades
The Herschel Infrared Experiment
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/classroom_activities/herschel_example.html (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/classroom_activities/herschel_example.html)
The Herschel Experiment was a famous example of early research that revealed the complex nature of light.

SOFIA Mission: Active Astronomy Guide
http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Edu/materials/activeAstronomy/activeAstronomy.html (http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Edu/materials/activeAstronomy/activeAstronomy.html)
Several downloadable guides explain the role of infrared light in astronomy and provide classroom activities that demonstrate how infrared light works.

What Is It?
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_games/what/img1.html (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_games/what/img1.html)
Just for fun!

Spectroscopy Game
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_games/spectra/ (http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_games/spectra/)
Although the WISE mission will not use spectroscopy to study stars in the infrared, this activity shows how different light waves from stars -- including infrared -- can help astronomers identify features or chemical compositions of the star without having to travel to the star.

9th - 12th Grades
SOFIA Mission: Active Astronomy Guide
http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Edu/materials/activeAstronomy/activeAstronomy.html (http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Edu/materials/activeAstronomy/activeAstronomy.html)
Several downloadable guides explain the role of infrared light in astronomy and provide classroom activities that demonstrate how infrared light works.

MultiWavelength Milky Way
http://mwmw.gsfc.nasa.gov/ (http://mwmw.gsfc.nasa.gov/)
This Web site brings together several sets of image data of the Milky Way galaxy in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Some tutorial pages explain the nature of light, the structure of the Milky Way and how maps of the Milky Way are made from Earth.

Be sure to visit the mission Web sites for details on these exciting mission elements.
http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/ (http://wise.ssl.berkeley.edu/)
www.nasa.gov/wise (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/main/index.html)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise)



- end -

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=lkIZK9PQLhKOKfL&s=hrKWKYNBLdJIKXOHIrE&m=psLUK0NJIkJ3E

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=enJLLOMoFaJBIVK&s=hrKWKYNBLdJIKXOHIrE&m=psLUK0NJIkJ3E