What's Up? The Space Place

Hey Space Placers! Today (4/29/150 NASA released images from the New Horizons spacecraft  that shows SURFACE features on Pluto. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) The images strongly suggest the presence of a polar cap on Pluto and show the main moon of Pluto Charon in orbit around the dwarf planet - HOW COOL IS THAT!? We are fast approaching July 14, 2015 when New Horizons will flyby the Plutonian system. Each day the view of Pluto gets bigger and better. Stay tuned! Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Astronomers have found three new " Super Earths " orbiting a nearby star. The star, HD 7924, is located 54 light years away which is really close by. Artist’s impression of a view from the HD 7924 planetary system looking back toward our sun, which would be easily visible to the naked eye. Since HD 7924 is in our northern sky, an observer looking back at the sun would see objects like the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Clouds close to our sun in their sky. Art by Karen Teramura & BJ Fulton, UH IfA. These extrasolar planets -also known as exoplanets -  orbit their star closer than our own planet Mercury orbits the Sun. They orbit their star in just 5, 15 and 24 days! By comparison Mercury orbits the Sun every 88 days. Thousands of extrasolar planet candidates have been discovered and it is estimated that there may be at least a 100 billion extrasolar planets in our Milky Way Galaxy . To date there has been no exoplanet discovery made...

Hey Space Placers! NASA/JHU  Please   Read my previous blog for background on NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft. The spacecraft completed its final maneuver on April 24th . The spacecraft is predicted to impact Mercury on April 30th and make a crater 52 feet across. We will not be able to see this crater until there is another orbital mission, if ever, to Mercury. UPDATE: The European Space Agency (ESA) has a mission to Mercury planned for launch in 2017 with an arrival of 2024 MESSENGER has been a very successful mission and has given us vast amounts of information, over 10 terabytes, about the planet closest to the Sun. It is now an explored world that will keep planetary scientists busy for quite awhile trying to understand all that MESSENGER has told us. Well done MESSENGER. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Read my column on Hubble Space Telescope (HST) which was launched into orbit 25 years ago today. HST's 25th Anniversary Photo NASA Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! "Are We Alone" was a famous book written decades again about the question of whether humanity is alone in the Universe. Countless sci-fi movies and TV series have occupied our thoughts and imaginations about whether other intelligent life in the Universe exists. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is being carried out world-wide but SETI.org  and NASA are front runners in the search for life elsewhere in the Universe. NASA A recent study of 100,000 galaxies revealed no signs of ET but the search will go on in a big, new way. NASA's "Nexus for Exoplanet System Science" or NExSS may be our best bet. NExSS will be a multi-disciplinary approach to study the Universe for signs of life other than ours on Earth. Every applicable science discipline and spacecraft, instrument and telescope will be applied to this search. For me personally I have publicly commented that "life always finds a way" and that I beli...

Hey Space Placers! A double Viewing ALERT. Venus and the Moon will be a stunning sight in the sky after sunset on April 21 in the western sky. Be sure to check out this beautiful alignment: Look for Earthshine on the Moon . Binoculars will help in the view. The night of April 22/23 is the peak of the Lyrid Meteor Shower. This is worth a peek as it can produce some bright meteors. You can read about the Lyrids here   and here  ( including a live feed during the shower). Here's to clear skies! Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Been getting caught up with family the last couple of days after returning to the US. NASA's highly successful  MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging  (MESSENGER) spacecraft is on a death watch that is expected to conclude sometime on  April 24th, 2015, when the spacecraft slams into the far side of Mercury at almost 9,000 mph. Artist's View of MESSENGER over Mercury Credits: NASA/JHU APL/Carnegie Institution of Washington The biggest finding to me from MESSENGER is the fact that abundant water exists at the poles of Mercury in permanently shadowed regions (PSR's). PSRs are places in the solar system - our Moon has them at the poles - where sunlight has never reached. This has allowed for the deposit of water from countless asteroid and comet impacts, both of which contain lots of water, to accumulate in these frigid areas. Mercury has enough water in its polar PSR's to cover an area the size of the st...