NASA's Dawn Spirals Down to Lowest Orbit

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

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

News release: 2011-384 Dec. 12, 2011

NASA's Dawn Spirals Down to Lowest Orbit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA Presents Software of the Year Award

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

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

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

News release: 2011-380 December 8, 2011

NASA Presents Software of the Year Award

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA Mars Rover Finds Mineral Vein Deposited by Water

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

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

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

News release: 2011-377 Dec. 7, 2011

NASA Mars Rover Finds Mineral Vein Deposited by Water

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Upcoming Educator Workshops Dec. 06, 2011

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

Go For Flight!

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

Target audience: K-12 educators

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

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

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

Toys In Space ll

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

Target audience: K-12 educators

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

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

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

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

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

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

Feature: 2011-375 Dec. 5, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA Finds ‘Merging Tsunami’ Doubled Japan Destruction

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

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

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

News release: 2011-374 Dec. 5, 2011

NASA Finds 'Merging Tsunami' Doubled Japan Destruction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA's Kepler Confirms Its First Planet In Habitable Zone

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

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

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

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

News release: 2011-373 Dec. 5, 2011

NASA's Kepler Confirms Its First Planet In Habitable Zone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA's Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge

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

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

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

News release: 2011-372 Dec. 5, 2011

NASA's Voyager Hits New Region at Solar System Edge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Dawn Soars Over Asteroid Vesta in 3-D

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

Jia-Rui Cook/Priscilla Vega 818-354-0850/4-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov/priscilla.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

Image advisory: 2011-366 Dec. 1, 2011

Dawn Soars Over Asteroid Vesta in 3-D

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-366&cid=release_2011-366

PASADENA, Calif. – Glide over the giant asteroid Vesta with NASA's Dawn spacecraft in a
new 3-D video. Dawn has been orbiting Vesta since July 15, obtaining high-resolution images of
its bumpy, cratered surface and making other scientific measurements.

The new video is available online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1041 . Best
viewed with red-blue glasses, the video incorporates images from Dawn's framing camera from
July to August 2011. It was created by Dawn team member Ralf Jaumann of the German
Aerospace Center (DLR).

The images were obtained when Dawn was making its approach to Vesta, and while orbiting the
giant asteroid in its first science orbit, known as survey orbit, at an altitude of about 1,700 miles
(2,700 kilometers). The video begins with a global view of Vesta from the plane of its equator,
where a mysterious band of linear ridges and troughs can be seen. The movie cuts to a flyover of
young craters in the northern hemisphere, whose peculiar alignment has led some scientists to
refer to them as the "snowman." Then this virtual tour of Vesta takes the viewer around a
massive mountain at the south pole of Vesta that is about 16 miles (25 kilometers) high, or more
than twice the height of Mt. Everest.

"If you want to know what it's like to explore a new world like Vesta, this new video gives
everyone a chance to see it for themselves," Jaumann said. "Scientists are poring over these
images to learn more about how the craters, hills, grooves and troughs we see were created."

Vesta is the second most massive object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn is
currently spiraling down to its low altitude mapping orbit, which will bring the spacecraft to
about 130 miles (210 kilometers) above Vesta's surface.

"Dawn's data thus far have revealed the rugged topography and complex textures of the surface
of Vesta, as can be seen in this video," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Soon, we'll add other pieces of the puzzle
such as the chemical composition, interior structure, and geologic age to be able to write the
history of this remnant protoplanet and its place in the early solar system."

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

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

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn
and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .

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

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