What's Up? The Space Place

Hey Space Placers! Read the latest about the likely creation of a black hole from last year's observed merger of two neutron stars. Illustration Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Talk about out-of-this-world-ideas!! NASA has plans to send a mini-helicopter to Mars on its next mission, Mars 2020 Rover. Animation of Mars helicopter and Mars 2020 rover. Credits: NASA/JPL-CalTech NASA's Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with the agency's Mars 2020 rover, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020, to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech   This addition to the Mars 2020 Rover will be a first in the history of planetary  exploration. The hope is that this technology will be proven and then used to further the exploration of Mars. Looking forward to this.... Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! For those of you in the U.S. I hope you have a safe and wonderful Memorial Day holiday - please pause and reflect on the true meaning of the day. Tombaugh Regio  is the name for Pluto’s heart-shaped feature. Sputnik Planitia forms the heart’s left lobe. Image via  New Horizons spacecraft/NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI FROM EARTHSKY.ORG New research on the composition of Pluto    puts forth the intriguing theory that Pluto is composed of a BILLION comets that came together in the frigid and distant outreaches of the solar system. This theory is based on analysis of the composition data from the Pluto flyby by New Horizons and the analysis of Comet 67/P by the Rosetta spacecraft. It is an intriguing theory but many questions need to be answered. Perhaps we will learn more with the 1/1/19 flyby of Ultima Thule - 2014 MU69 - by New Horizons. Our solar system is definitely an unknown for the most part. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! Humanity lost a luminary yesterday when Alan Bean died following a sudden illness. Alan Bean, Apollo 12 Lunar Module Pilot NASA He was one of my fave Moonwalkers because he told it like it was as only Alan could - straight up and with a humor not seen very often. We now have only four living Moonwalkers left....... We need to make more. Sky Guy in VA

Hey Space Placers! The Moon and Earth are a double planet system, which means that the Moon is large in comparison to its parent planet, the Earth. There is one other double planet system in the solar system and that is Pluto-Charon. The Earth and the Moon are interwoven in so many ways but one of the most interesting is how scientists use the Moon to monitor the atmosphere and the Earth itself. One method is to monitor the amount of moonlight the Earth receives which can be used in calibrating Earth monitoring satellites. The other is to analyze the clarity of the Earth's atmosphere during total lunar eclipses to do so.    This helps in deterring how "clear" the Earth's stratosphere is of volcanic aerosols which in turn can affect the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth. I personally observed the total lunar eclipse in 1992 mentioned in the article while I lived on the island of Guam and I can tell you it was DARK! These combined studies will help us to ...

Hey Space Placers! Looking for an exotic get away this weekend? NASA has just the place - another world beyond our solar system ! The imagined surface of exoplanet Kepler-186f, on NASA's interactive Exoplanet Exploration website. Kepler-186f is an Earth-size planet orbiting a small red star, which may or may not have an atmosphere. No real photos of Kepler-186f exist. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech It is an amazing time for exoplanet discoveries - worlds that exist beyond our solar system. We currently have confirmed almost 4,000 exoplanets with 3,000 more awaiting confirmation! NASA's new Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was launched earlier this month and made its first test image - WOW. This test image from one of the four cameras aboard the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) captures a swath of the southern sky along the plane of our galaxy. TESS is expected to cover more than 400 times the amount of sky shown in this image when using all...

Hey Space Placers! Back from sea and Europe. REALLY sorry about the interruption of blogs but between Internet issues and non-stop travel I just couldn't post. I will start back today with a cool video of cool science on the ISS . Help me close in on 3 MILLION VIEWS (just 20K views away!!!!!)  by   checking back everyday. Sky Guy is BACK in VA