Twittering from Mars: The Phoenix on Ice

Twittering from Mars: The Phoenix on Ice: "You know technology is kicking ass when something you report on one week announces the headlines the next. That's what happened here: last week we covered the seriously slick Phoenix Lander twitter account, and over the weekend that same account broke some of the most exciting space news ever. There's ice on Mars and we can see it.
On Friday afternoon the far-flung Phoenix focused its freshly-unfurled arm camera on the ground around its feet, and immediately spotted a shiny smooth surface. This has been labeled the 'Holy Cow!' site, as those where the first words uttered in Mission Control when they saw it."

Cratera gigante explica estranho formato de Marte - O Globo Online

Cratera gigante explica estranho formato de Marte - O Globo Online: "Reuters/Brasil Online
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Uma cratera gigante feita por um asteróide ou um cometa explica a razão de Marte ser tão assimétrico, com uma bacia em um hemisfério e altiplano do outro, afirmaram três equipes de cientistas na quarta-feira.
O impacto cavou um buraco de 8.500 quilômetros de lado a lado e 10.600 quilômetros de comprimento -o tamanho das áreas combinadas de Ásia, Europa e Austrália, afirmaram os pesquisadores na revista Nature.
Esse seria o maior impacto descoberto até hoje no sistema solar.
Os três estudos descrevem o tamanho verdadeiro da depressão, às vezes chamada de Bacia Borealis. Alguns dos limites dela foram erodidos por atividade vulcânica, disseram os cientistas.
No local parece ter havido um oceano nos primórdios do planeta, antes de Marte perder grande parte da sua atmosfera e de a água ou sublimar ou congelar abaixo da superfície.
Na semana passada, a Phoenix Mars Lander, da Nasa, fez buscas na região de poeira vermelha que cobre a superfície do planeta para revelar o que parece ser uma camada subjacente de gelo.
Jeffrey Andrews-Hanna e os colegas do Massachusetts Institute of Technology, e Bruce Banerdt, do Laboratório de Propulsão de Jatos da Nasa na Califórnia, afirmaram que a teoria do impacto, originalmente proposta em 1984 pelo especialista em Marte Steven Squyres, da Universidade de Cornell, é a que melhor explica a cratera.
Quando o sistema solar estava se formando há 4 bilhões de anos, grandes objetos frequentemente se colidiam com outros.
(Reportagem de Maggie Fox)"

MIT & RIT Creating a 3-D "Super RoadMap" to the Solar System

MIT & RIT Creating a 3-D "Super RoadMap" to the Solar System: "Think of it as a GoogleMaps to the Solar System: a 3-D 'super roadmaps' of other planets and moons that will provide robots, astronauts and engineers with the details about atmospheric composition, biohazards, wind speed and temperature -information that could help land future spacecraft and more effectively navigate roving cameras across a Martian or lunar terrain. Manned and robotic missions navigating on other bodies in our solar system will have the ability to find landmarks and destinations to point them in the right direction.
RIT scientist Donald Figer and his team are developing a new type of detector that uses LIDAR (LIght Detection and Ranging), a technique similar to radar, but which uses light instead of radio waves to measure distances. The project will deliver a new generation of optical/ultraviolet imaging LIDAR detectors that will significantly extend NASA science capabilities for planetary applications by providing 3-D location information for planetary surfaces and a wider range of coverage than the single-pixel detectors currently combined with LIDAR.
The LIDAR imaging detector will be able to distinguish topographical details that differ in height by as little as one centimeter. This is an improvement in a technology that conflates objects less than one meter in relative height. LIDAR used today could confuse a boulder for a pebble, an important detail when landing a spacecraft.
'The imaging LIDAR detector could become a workhorse for a wide range of NASA missions,' says Figer, professor in RIT's Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and director of the RIDL. 'It could support NASA's planetary missions like Europa Geophysical Orbiter or a Mars High-resolution Spatial Mapper.'"

Accelerating Future » Dragon Storm

Accelerating Future » Dragon Storm