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Secrets of Space
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Iapetus of Saturn

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Cassini orbiter took this picture of Iapetus, the distant moon of Saturn
Cassini orbiter took this picture of Iapetus, the distant moon of Saturn

Iapetus is an interesting satellite of Saturn in that it has both a light side and a dark side – a yin and yang. Italian mathematician, astronomer, engineer, and astrologer Giovanni Cassini was first to observe the dark-light difference when he discovered Iapetus in 1671. So it is fitting that this picture was taken by the space exploration mission partly named after him (Cassini-Huygens). The narrow angle camera on the Cassini orbiter took this photograph of Iapetus from a distance of approximately 4 million kilometers.

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Pictures

Guatemalan volcano Fuego erupts

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NASA captures the Guatemalan volcano Fuego's eruption
NASA captures the Guatemalan volcano Fuego’s eruption

NASA’s Terra spacecraft which studies Earth captured a couple of volcanoes in Guatemala, including one – Fuego – that had just erupted. Located just 35 kilometers from the capital Guatemala City, the ash and steam released from Fuego closed down the city’s airport. Fuego is seen on the left hand side of the picture, with the smaller inset showing a thermal IR view from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument. Other active Guatemalan volcanoes shown in the image are the Acatenango (top), Volcano de Agua (middle), and Pacaya volcano (right).

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Pictures

Dusty Milky Way galaxy

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Our Milky Way galaxy is full of dust as seen in this new all-sky map from Planck
Our Milky Way galaxy is full of dust as seen in this new all-sky map from Planck

Scientists are busy trying to interpret some of the data collected by the European Space Agency’s Planck mission and other telescopes seeking the hard to detect “curly” polarized light called B-modes which may originate from the very first moments of the birth of the universe. But in order to do so they must first sift through all the polarizing light, like this image which shows all the polarized dust in the Milky Way galaxy. This picture uses data that Planck was able to collect thanks to special instrumentation that can detect polarized light. This includes light of 353 gigahertz or 0.85-millimeter wavelengths, which is longer than what we see with our eyes.

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Pictures

Opportunity to study flat faced rock

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Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to study rock
Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity to study rock

Mars exploration rover Opportunity gets ready for some more examination as it comes up to this flat-faced rock (center of the picture) on the red planet. Opportunity rover’s wide-angle, front hazard avoidance camera took this picture in early March 2015, on the 3,948th Martian day of the rover’s mission on Mars. This rock is located in an area dubbed “Marathon Valley” which the rover reached over the last month and plans to study for its unique mineral characteristics.

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Videos

Lecture on Dawn’s mission to the asteroid belt

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This is a Theodore von Kármán Lecture Series talk, held last November at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It addressed some of the key aspects to NASA’s “Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission” as it looks to take human space travel to a new level by breaking out of the recent low Earth orbit missions. This talk was given by a long time veteran of the Jet Propulsion Lab, Brian Muirhead who is currently the Chief Engineer at JPL. Discussion included what is involved in planning a mission to the asteroid belt, possible target asteroids to capture, how to bring the asteroid back to orbit around the Moon for study, space craft design, propulsion, planetary defense techniques, robotic technologies required for such endeavours, and much more.

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