Attend the 3rd Annual Climate Change Symposium at JPL

Attend the 3rd Annual Climate Change Symposium at JPL

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

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

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

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

NASA in Final Preparations for Nov. 8 Asteroid Flyby

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

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

Feature: 2011-332 Oct. 26, 2011

NASA in Final Preparations for Nov. 8 Asteroid Flyby

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA Says Comet Elenin Gone and Should Be Forgotten

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

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

Feature: 2011-331 Oct. 25, 2011

NASA Says Comet Elenin Gone and Should Be Forgotten

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

Comet Elenin is no more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA Telescopes Help Solve Ancient Supernova Mystery

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

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

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

News release: 2011-329 Oct. 24, 2011

NASA Telescopes Help Solve Ancient Supernova Mystery

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Herschel Finds Oceans of Water in Disk of Nearby Star

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

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

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

News release: 2011-327 Oct. 20, 2011

Herschel Finds Oceans of Water in Disk of Nearby Star

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Mars Rover Carries Device for Underground Scouting

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

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

Feature: 2011-325 Oct. 20, 2011

Mars Rover Carries Device For Underground Scouting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA's Spitzer Detects Comet Storm in Nearby Solar System

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

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

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

News release: 2011- 322 Oct. 19, 2011

NASA's Spitzer Detects Comet Storm in Nearby Solar System

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer mission for the
agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the
Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages
JPL for NASA.

For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu/ and
http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

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

Educator Events Oct. 17, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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NASA, Japan Release Improved Topographic Map of Earth

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

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

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

NEWS RELEASE: 2011-320 Oct. 17, 2011

NASA, Japan Release Improved Topographic Map of Earth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Upcoming Workshops at NASA/JPL's Educator Resource Center

Upcoming Educator Workshops Oct. 12, 2011

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

NASA Lunar and Meteorite Sample Certification Program

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

Target audience: K-12 educators

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

Overview:NASA makes actual lunar samples from the historic Apollo missions available to lend to teachers. Attend this certification workshop to bring the excitement of real lunar rocks and regolith samples to your students. This workshop is being offered at the NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center located in Pomona, Calif. Please call 909-397-4420 to reserve your spot.

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

Robotics

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

Target audience: K-12 educators

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

Overview:Did you know that at JPL we talk to Mars robots every day? Discover how engineers use animals to design robots. Come see the exciting extent that we use robotics today and look into the future for space and medicine. Make and take inexpensive classroom activities and bring technology into your classroom! This workshop is being offered at the NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center located in Pomona, please call 909-397-4420 to reserve your spot.

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

Go For Flight!

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

Target audience: K-12 educators

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

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

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

Toys In Space ll

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

Target audience: K-12 educators

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

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

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

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