Jupiter, Saturn, Hole and HD Earth

Okay people we have a lot to cover today so lets get started, not really but I've always wanted to say that. My power engineering teacher said that a few nights back, I thought at my age I'd never hear those dreaded words again, you know your teacher would rush in to the class with a bunch of books under their arm and say those words and you'd be thinking crap, brain already full.

The image above is my first attempt at Jupiter taken last year. You can see Europa off to the right. Jupiter is the 5th. planet from the Sun, takes 11 years to orbit the Sun and has 63 confirmed moons. Jupiter is our largest planet, has 2.5 times the mass as all the other planets combined, Jupiter is made up mostly of gases with a rocky core.

The image below is my first attempt at Saturn taken last year as well. That is exactly what you'd see looking through an amateur telescope, beautiful. Saturn is the only planet that would float in water because it is made up of gases, no rocky core. It is the 6th. planet out from our Sun and takes around 29 years to complete one orbit. Saturn has 60 confirmed moons. In the image you can see 3 of Saturn's moons, starting from the closest moon from Saturn going out they are, Dione , Titan , Iapetus. I will post updates when I take more images with newer better equipment when the weather allows, looks like April, we have a long cold winter here and it seems to be starting early.


The Mars Odyssey Spacecraft acouple weeks back had discovered entrances to several possible caves on the slopes of a Martian volcano Arsia Mons, below is a close up of one of the caves, now they are saying and I quote, "Martian Caves are interesting not only for their geology but as possible habitats for future human colonists" I posted a picture below of the cave and of the habitat that was in the film Race To Mars , where would you want to live? The hole looks deep and dark, probably where the aliens are hiding, where as the habitat doesn't have aliens or things that bite, oh and has a big screen TV, probably High Definition, I vote the habitat.

I can see it all now, NASA sends a group of terraformer Scientists with hoes and rakes, and first aid kits with flare guns, not a real gun between them, one of them goes to investigate the caves by themselves, doesn't come back, another scientist without a gun goes to look for the first one, that one doesn't come back, you get my drift, the aliens pick them off one by one. Scientists need to watch more scary sci fi shows.

The Japanese satellite Kaguya on its way to the Moon has taken the first High Definition video of Earth from beyond it's orbit, 68,350 miles to be exact. The video has not been released yet but a still image (below) has, you can see the western coast of South America in the image. I'm looking forward to more High Def stuff from this satellite.

Venus

So I got up an hour later then I wanted to , 5:00am. I was hoping to get up early enough to get some images again of the Orion Nebula, now I only have an hour before the Sun is up! Get up quickly, run into the edge of the bedroom door, no time for a bathroom stop , now if there is one thing I can't get away without doing and that's feed the cat, if I don't she gets between me and the door and it's not pretty. So I feed the cat and run out to my dome, flip the switch on the telescope and think somethings missing.... the computer, run back to the house but not before I stub my toe on my telescope leg throwing it out of alignment, I had spent the previous night setting up the scope basically to the center of the universe, took me an hour, all for not. Orion Nebula was out of the question, as I'm sulking I happen to look towards the east and see Venus, I wasn't too sure if Venus was in one of her phases or if she was full. Venus goes through phases like our Moon from crescent to full and back again. If I could get a pic of Venus in one of her phases, that would be cool, took a quick look, I was lucky Venus was in one of her phases as you can see from the image I took above, (click on pic for larger image).

Venus, the second closest planet to our Sun has a highly reflective cloud cover made up mostly of sulfuric acid so you can't see any surface detail in visible light. The size of Venus is only 650 km. less than Earth's. The surface temp is about 464 degrees C., hot enough to melt lead. The surface pressure is the same on Earth, if you are 1 km. below the surface of our oceans, so even though Venus is called our sister planet you wouldn't want to live there, you'd be poisoned, fried and squashed.

The pic above was taken by the rovers on Mars, notice the wispy clouds? too cool. It's one of many firsts imaged by the rovers, the first Earth like clouds photographed on another planet.

The pic above is another first, the first dust devils imaged on another planet, it gives scientists a rare look into forces that are shaping the Martian surface today.



Another first, the first meteorite discovered and imaged on the surface of another planet.



But most importantly the image above provides our best evidence that water was once flowing freely on the surface of mars, silica rich soil, blueberries and rippled-rock layers would only have formed if water had been present on the surface of Mars. It's confirmed, NASA is allowing Opportunity to enter the Victoria Crater. There was some questions about Opportunity loosing traction because of the loose surface but NASA is satisfied that Opportunity has a good escape route out with good traction if needed. First stop, Opportunity will be heading for a light two toned layer of exposed rock that may preserve evidence of interaction between the Martian atmosphere and the surface from millions of years ago.

The images from Cassini are coming fast and furious of the odd moon Iapetus. the latest image is a close up of the mountain range that circles the equator of the moon.

NASA Missions Updates

Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don't. September 10th. NASA's Cassini spacecraft made it's closest flyby of Saturn's moon Iapetus. Cassini took images of Saturn's 3rd. largest two toned moon (the pic below) from 1640 kms high. This bizarre moon has a mountain range that runs along the equator. It also has two different colored hemispheres, dark and white, too weird. In Arthur C. Clarke's novel 2001: A Space Odyssey Astronaut Dave Bowman finds an alien monolith waiting for him on Iapetus.

A few of NASA's goals on this flyby are:

1. Determine the characteristics and geological history of Iapetus.

2. Define the different physical processes that created the surface of Iapetus.

3. Investigate composition and distribution of surface materials on Iapetus-particularly the dark organic rich material and condensed ices.

Iapetus is cool, my third fav moon in the universe, the first being our moon but my second fav moon in the universe is Mimas shown below.

Mimas is Saturn's 7th. largest moon, whatever hit the little moon that caused the large crater at the top nearly destroyed it, there are fracture lines on its opposite side. Mimas is made up of ice and water with a little smattering of rock. May the force be with you.

NASA's rover, Opportunity started into the Victoria Crater on Tuesday but when it had slipage problems it backed out again. NASA is now trying to figure out whether or not the loose ground is going to be a problem for Opportunity and may prevent Opportunity from doing any science in the crater at all.

The Phoenix Mars Lander which was launched on my birthday August 4, 2007, the day not the year was my birthday, is doing well. NASA did some tests and all its crucial stuff that has to be working like its landing radar checked out well. The Phoenix Lander will be landing on Mars May 25th, 2008 to perform various on board tests with it's cool built in lab. The lander has travelled more than 50 million miles but has another 600 million to go. Below is an artistic rendition of the Phoenix Lander on the surface of Mars.