Ice Volcanoes on Ceres

Speaking of an extended Dawn mission orbiting Ceres, scientists are not wondering why Ceres does not have more craters.  Could it be ice volcanoes?  Data from the Dawn mission may offer clues.

Simone Marchi, a senior research scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, stated:

We concluded that a significant population of large craters on Ceres has been obliterated beyond recognition over geological time scales, which is likely the result of Ceres' peculiar composition and internal evolution...Whatever the process or processes were, this obliteration of large craters must have occurred over several hundred millions of years.

Maybe it does make sense for Dawn to stick around a learn a little more about this fascinating dwarf planet buried in the asteroid belt.

This video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory shares even more details. 

A Sad 30 Year Anniversary

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Challenger Shuttle disaster - January 28, 1986.  Seven crew members lost their lives when the shuttle broke apart about a minute into its ascent.  Their names will forever stand as a testament to the price we will be asked to pay as we reach for the stars:

- Gregory Jarvis,
- Christa McAuliffe,
- Ronald McNair,
- Ellison Onizuka,
- Judith Resnik,
- Dick Scobee, and
- Michael J. Smith.

As Ronald Reagan stated on that tragic day,

There's a coincidence today. On this day three hundred and ninety years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today, we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.

Extended NASA Missions

Earlier this month NASA extended nine space missions via the 2016 Senior Review of Operating Missions, which area provided below in alphabetical order:

-Dawn;

-Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO);

-Mars Atmospere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN); 

-Mars Odyssey orbiter;

-Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO);

-New Horizons;

-the Opportunity and Curiosity Mars rovers; and

-support for the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission.

That is quite an investment in Mars, but let's not forget ongoing missions as well such as Cassini around Saturn and Juno orbiting Jupiter. 

Unfortunely, Dawn is done exploring the asteroir belt. While a visit to another asteroid (145 Adeona) was proposed, the panel decided to keep the spacecraft in orbit around Ceres to learn more about the dwarf planet. 

Luckily, New Horizons will continue to explore the outer reaches of the solar system. The panel approved a mission to Kuiper Belt Object MU69 by 2019. So the exploration continues. 

Star Trek Discovery

This weekend at Comic-Con Star Trek fans saw the first clip for the new CBS series Discovery.  The 13-part series is expected to premiere next January. 

It is an interesting teaser given the hidden USS Discovery and accompanying war-like music. Why is the ship in hiding? It is not clear and CBS is remaining quiet.

With a new Star Trek movie appearing last week, fans should be happy everywhere and particularly at Comic-Con. Given the multitude of movies and television iterations, no one can question Gene Roddenberry spoke for more than one generation. 

Who Needs Dismal Conventions?

I cannot say anything from this week's convention in Cleveland provided a path forward or a hopeful future. With that in mind, I was happy to hear next week's convention in Philadelphia will include former astronaut Mark Kelly and his wife former congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford, a victim gun violence.

This is a family that has seen its highs and lows, be it orbiting this blue marble to battling gun laws back here on Earth. They both lead an organization called Americans for Responsible Solutions.  The mission of this organization is to:

...encourage elected officials to stand up for solutions to prevent gun violence and protect responsible gun ownership by communicating directly with the constituents that elect them.

We need more signs of responsible leadership this summer. I also hope we can hear more from explorers, inventors, and others who create that future. It is important we offer the next generation hope and show them the way.

SpaceX Lands the Falcon Again

Yesterday morning SpaceX had another successful landing following the launch of the CRS-9 mission aboard the Dragon to the International Space Station.  The Falcon 9 rocket successfully returned to Cape Canaveral and landed back onto the launch pad.  You can see the video here.  An impressive feat no matter how many times you see it. 

The image above shows both the launching and landing of the Falcon 9 in one image.  The credit for that shot goes to Ken Kremer at kenkremer.com.  

Great image: Juno's Insertion

This impressive image is a digital painting created by Mathias Verhasselt depicting Juno during its orbital insertion burn over Jupiter.  You can find an assortment of similarly fascinating images at the Bruce Murray Space Image Library on The Planetary Society's website. 

Space Quotes: The Boring Moon?

"After two revolutions of the moon, it became clear that it was kind of boring. On Earth, you have rivers, oceans, continents, highlands and mountains, but the moon looks like one beat-up, sand-blasted ball with hole upon hole."

--Astronaut Bill Anders, who served on Apollo 8 during its lunar orbit in1968.  You can find the rest of his quote and a number of additional astronaut quotes in this Forbes magazine article.  

Great Image: Juno Approaching Jupiter

NASA has released the first images showing the Juno spacecraft's view of Jupiter and its surroundings. The picture, taken July 10, shows Jupiter and three of its moons, including Europa. Hopefully, we will visit Europa in the near future as a separate mission. 

As with the early images from the Pluto mission last year, this is just the start of some great images. 

Chinese ET Search

China’s Aperture Spherical Telescope will be up and running in September. The 500-meter-wide device is the largest of its kind and will add more resources to the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life. The next largest telescope of this type is Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, which is 300 meters in diameter.

Of course, the new telescope can also do more things such as neutral hydrogen, faint pulsars, and low frequency gravitational waves.

Even better is China's plan to make the telescope available to world scientists in a few years. This makes it a world scientific asset.

You can read more here.

Light Show on Jupiter

Good news! The Juno spacecraft is safely in orbit around Jupiter. 

The image above is a composite from the Hubble Space Telescope showing the gas giants amazing auroras just prior to Juno's arrival.

I expect we will learn much more about the unique properties of Jupiter as Juno starts its research mission. 

Stay tuned.

Something to Ponder on the Fourth of July

The Wall Street Journal had an enlightening article this weekend titled "Fleeing the Czars, Defying Gravity: A Fourth of July Immigrant Tale."  It leads up to the career of astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, pictured above, who was part of the missions to keep the Hubble Space Telescope operating properly.  Hoffman retired from NASA in 1997 and is now a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. You can read more about his career here.

Great Image: The Solar System's Smaller Worlds

The image above recently posted by The Planetary Society is labeled "Every round object in the solar system under 10,000 kilometers in diameter, to scale." This impressive collection represents 2 planets, 18 or 19 moons, 1 or 2 asteroids, and 87 "trans-Neptunian" objects. 

You can see how the moons Ganymede and Titan outside Mercury, and our own Moon exceeds the size of Pluto.

The image below shows the objects we have already visited, including the recently explored Ceres and Pluto. We are making great progress in our explorations of the solar system. 

Image Credit: Montage by Emily Lakdawalla. Data from NASA / JPL, JHUAPL/SwRI, SSI, and UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA, processed by Gordan Ugarkovic, Ted Stryk, Bjorn Jonsson, Roman Tkachenko, and Emily Lakdawalla.