Here in the midst of our northern winter, a beautiful shot of the summer Milky Way.
Jason Brownless captured this view last August of the Todd Lake Basin in Oregon, with Mt. Bachelor – a stratovolcano, since 1958 the site of a ski lodge – and the Milky Way in the background.
SOURCE::: Deborah Byrd in http://www.earthskynews.org
Natarajan
Jan 19 2015
The year 2014 ranks as Earth’s warmest since 1880, according to two separate analyses by NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists.
The 10 warmest years in the instrumental record, with the exception of 1998, have now occurred since 2000. This trend continues a long-term warming of the planet, according to an analysis of surface temperature measurements by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) in New York.
In an independent analysis of the raw data, also released Friday, NOAA scientists also found 2014 to be the warmest on record.
“NASA is at the forefront of the scientific investigation of the dynamics of the Earth’s climate on a global scale,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The observed long-term warming trend and the ranking of 2014 as the warmest year on record reinforces the importance for NASA to study Earth as a complete system, and particularly to understand the role and impacts of human activity.”
Since 1880, Earth’s average surface temperature has warmed by about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degrees Celsius), a trend that is largely driven by the increase in carbon dioxide and other human emissions into the planet’s atmosphere. The majority of that warming has occurred in the past three decades.
“This is the latest in a series of warm years, in a series of warm decades. While the ranking of individual years can be affected by chaotic weather patterns, the long-term trends are attributable to drivers of climate change that right now are dominated by human emissions of greenhouse gases,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt.
While 2014 temperatures continue the planet’s long-term warming trend, scientists still expect to see year-to-year fluctuations in average global temperature caused by phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña. These phenomena warm or cool the tropical Pacific and are thought to have played a role in the flattening of the long-term warming trend over the past 15 years. However, 2014’s record warmth occurred during an El Niño-neutral year.
“NOAA provides decision makers with timely and trusted science-based information about our changing world,” said Richard Spinrad, NOAA chief scientist. “As we monitor changes in our climate, demand for the environmental intelligence NOAA provides is only growing. It’s critical that we continue to work with our partners, like NASA, to observe these changes and to provide the information communities need to build resiliency.”
Regional differences in temperature are more strongly affected by weather dynamics than the global mean. For example, in the U.S. in 2014, parts of the Midwest and East Coast were unusually cool, while Alaska and three western states – California, Arizona and Nevada – experienced their warmest year on record, according to NOAA.
The GISS analysis incorporates surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather stations, ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures, and temperature measurements from Antarctic research stations. This raw data is analyzed using an algorithm that takes into account the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heating effects that could skew the calculation. The result is an estimate of the global average temperature difference from a baseline period of 1951 to 1980.
NOAA scientists used much of the same raw temperature data, but a different baseline period. They also employ their own methods to estimate global temperatures.
GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.
NASA monitors Earth’s vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites, as well as airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth’s interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.
The data set of 2014 surface temperature measurements is available at:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/
The methodology used to make the temperature calculation is available at:
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/sources_v3/
For more information about NASA’s Earth science activities, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow
SOURCE:::::www.nasa.gov
Natarajan
Jan 18 2015
Deanna Frautschi shared this beautiful photo of a winter sunset in central Illinois.
Our thanks to Deanna Frautschi in Illinois for this wonderful winter sunset photo. She wrote:
January sunset in central Illinois highlights the breathtaking beauty of the sky and the land.
Many people in various parts of the U.S. comment that the winter sunsets are the most spectacular. Why is that? The Weather Channel says it’s because, at this time of year in North America, weather patterns let dry, clean Canadian air sweep across country. In that winter air, more colors of the rainbow spectrum that makes up sunlight travel through to our eyes without being scattered away.
SOURCE:::: http://www.earthsky.org
Natarajan
Jan 18 2015
IT turns out the Beagle has landed after all — but it never called home.
The gone-but-not-forgotten spacecraft Beagle-2 went AWOL on Christmas Day, 2003, when it was supposed to land on Mars and start transmitting data back to Earth.
Instead, the British-built craft went dark. After several months, it was declared lost — presumed to have been destroyed during its approach or while trying to land on the red planet.
On Friday, more than 11 years later, European Space Agency officials reported that the Beagle-2 had been finally found — thanks to extensive detective work based on new photos taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
DISCOVERY: Have scientists solved the Beagle 2 mystery?
The photos show the craft landed safely on Mars and partially deployed — but was unable to fully deploy and start communicating.
Still, it was a vindication of sorts for space scientists who had wondered for more than a decade about the fate of their pet project, which was designed to search for signs of life on Mars.
Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time, called the finding “excellent news.”
He said not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 had “remained a nagging worry.”
Soon after Beagle-2’s disappearance, NASA landed both Spirit and Opportunity near the Martian equator.
Both sent back troves of images and discoveries, providing the sort of information astronomers had been seeking when the first Mars probes began.
There it is … This NASA annotated image shows a bright feature interpreted as the Beagle 2 Lander with solar arrays at least partially deployed on the surface of Mars. Pic: AFP PHOTO/NASA Source: AFP
Mars is notoriously hard to reach. In a half-century of launch attempts, more than half of the missions by various countries have failed to get off the ground on Earth or overshot Mars.
Landing on the red planet is particularly treacherous because of the thin atmosphere.
Incoming spacecraft travelling at 19,300kph have only minutes to slow to a stop.
The Martian terrain is also full of obstacles — boulders, cracks and cliffs — and a wrong move can doom a spacecraft.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has circled the planet since 2006, has periodically searched for spacecraft missing in action.
Still missing is NASA’s Mars Polar Lander, which lost contact during its arrival at the south pole in 1999.
Officials said careful analysis of the high-resolution photos showed the Beagle-2 had landed within its expected landing area in a basin close to the Martian equator. Signs of key entry and descent components were also spotted.
Identifying the craft was made more difficult by its small size — it is just over 1.8 metres wide with its solar panels unfurled.
Lost in space … A computer generated image of the Mars Express in orbit around Mars. Pic: AP Photo/European Space Agency Source: AP
The 143-pound Beagle-2 was named for the ship that carried naturalist Charles Darwin on his voyage of discovery in the 1830s.
It is shaped like an oversized pocket watch and was designed to descend through the Martian atmosphere, deploy parachutes, and “bounce” to a safe landing on inflatable bags.
Experts who helped identify the lander at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab said the photographs are “consistent” with only a partial deployment of the Beagle-2 upon landing.
They said a failure to fully deploy would explain why no data or signals from the craft were ever received, since a complete deployment of all of its solar panels would have been needed for successful transmissions.
Alfred McEwen, chief investigator of the project, said the special camera had been used to search for all of the landers that have tried to descend to the surface of Mars.
“This the first time we found one that didn’t send a signal after it landed,” he said.
The Beagle has landed … A computer-generated image showing the Beagle 2 Probe on surface of Mars. Pic: AP Photo/European Space Agency Source: AP
“If the landing sequence works correctly, the probe sends a radio signal, and you can use that to pinpoint where it is coming from, even if it broadcasts only very briefly. But in the case of Beagle-2, we didn’t get anything. All we had to go by was the target landing area.”
Experts who worked on the project said the Beagle-2 mission can now be classified a partial success — even if it never provided information about possible life on Mars.
UK Space Agency chief executive David Parker said the discovery of the craft showed its complex landing procedures had worked.
“This finding makes the case that Beagle-2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe’s continuing exploration of Mars,” he said.
The Beagle-2 was launched on ESA’s Mars Express orbiter. It was released from its mother ship on December 19, 2003, and was supposed to land six days later, but no communications with the lander were ever established.
Professor Mark Sims of the University of Leicester, who worked on the project, said the new information shows the team came extremely close to its goal of getting data from Mars, with the deployment failing only in its final stage.
“To be frank, I had all but given up hope of ever knowing what happened to Beagle-2,” he said, admitting he was troubled every Christmas Day by the unknown fate of the craft.
SOURCE:::: http://www.news.com.au
Natarajan
Jan 17 2015
This image of the interior view from the International Space Station’s Cupola module was taken on Jan. 4, 2015. The large bay windows allows the Expedition 42 crew to see outside. The Cupola houses one of the space station’s two robotic work stations used by astronauts to manipulate the large robotic arm seen through the right window. The robotic arm, or Canadarm2, was used throughout the construction of the station and is still used to grapple visiting cargo vehicles and assist astronauts during spacewalks. The Cupola is attached to the nadir side of the space station and also gives a full panoramic view of the Earth.
Image Credit: NASA
SOURCE::: http://www.nasa.gov
Natarajan
Jan 17 2015
A lone tree on the stark slope of a granite dome in Yosemite National Park.
Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.
~Khalil Gibran
Kurt Harvey captured this image in Yosemite National Park in California. He wrote:
I’ve admired this tree many times while driving along the Tioga Pass Road in Yosemite. Rooted in a crack on the slope of a granite dome it has a grand view and is also very exposed to the wind. It looks like its doing well though and is inspiring to see.
This was made from a 3 RAW bracketed capture. The sky was pretty featureless with thin overcast and smoke from the fire near Foresta but with some work I was able to bring out the texture you see.
SOURCE::::: http://www.earthskynews.org
Natarajan
Jan 17 2015
Ten Years Ago, Huygens Probe Lands on Surface of TitanTen years ago, an explorer from Earth parachuted into the haze of an alien moon toward an uncertain fate. After a gentle descent lasting more than two hours, it landed with a thud on a frigid floodplain, surrounded by icy cobblestones. With this feat, the Huygens probe accomplished humanity’s first landing on a moon in the outer solar system. Huygens was safely on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.
These images of Saturn’s moon Titan were taken on Jan. 14, 2005 by the Huygens probe at four different altitudes. The images are a flattened (Mercator) projection of the view from the descent imager/spectral radiometer on the probe as it landed on Titan’s surface.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. NASA supplied two instruments on the Huygens probe, the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer and the Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer.
> More: NASA and ESA Celebrate 10 Years Since Titan Landing
Image Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
SOURCE:::: http://www.nasa.gov
Natarajan
Jan 16 2015
First Notable Solar Flare of 2015
The sun emitted a mid-level solar flare, peaking at 11:24 p.m. EST on Jan. 12, 2015. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the sun constantly, captured an image of the event. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth’s atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however — when intense enough — they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel.
Image Credit: NASA/SDO
SOURCE:::: http://www.nasa.gov
Jan 15 2015
You won’t have to worry about getting a drink on this flight. Source: Getty Images
A US man from Brooklyn flew home in style on Monday, as practically the only passenger on-board a Cleveland-to-New York flight.
Chris O’Leary tweeted in disbelief after taking his seat as the solo flyer aboard a Delta regional plane and got incredibly personalised safety instructions from flight attendants.
O’Leary’s 9:39am flight home was delayed for hours, so he stayed in his hotel until the afternoon when it was finally going to depart, according to ABC News.
By the time O’Leary reached the airport, he learned that virtually all his fellow passengers had been rebooked on other flights and he somehow missed messages offering the earlier departures.
“They rebooked everyone but me on another flight to LGA,” he tweeted, “so I am literally the only person on this plane.”
He added: “Just got a personal safety briefing from my two flight attendants.”
A flight attendant snapped a picture of O’Leary alone in passenger seats.
He tweeted out the image with: “No, I’m not joking. I’m the only one on this plane.”
O’Leary was all set to get his personalised ride home, before the Delta plane rolled back to the gate and picked up one more passenger.
O’Leary didn’t mind sharing his flight.
“Part of this is my own stupidity but it ended up working out in my favor,” O’Leary told ABC, grateful that he missed all of the airline’s messages.
It’ll be a Cleveland-to-New York flight O’Leary will never forget.
“Well, this has been a interesting day,” he tweeted. “Who knew the simple act of getting on the plane you’re supposed to could amuse so many people?”
Even O’Leary’s mum saw his picture on Twitter.
“Reaction to this story from my mum: `I’m glad you got a haircut,’ “ O’Leary tweeted.
SOURCE:::: http://www.news.com.au
Natarajan
On Jan. 12, 1986, the space shuttle Columbia launched at 6:55 a.m. EST from Kennedy Space Center on the STS-61C mission. It was the first spaceflight for now-NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, who was a Pilot on the STS-61C crew along with Mission Commander Robert L. Gibson, Mission Specialists Franklin R. Chang-Diaz, Steven A. Hawley and George D. Nelson and Payload Specialists Robert J. Cenker of RCA and U.S. Rep. (now Senator) Bill Nelson. During the six-day flight, crew members deployed the SATCOM KU satellite and conducted experiments in astrophysics and materials processing. The mission was accomplished in 96 orbits of Earth, ending with a successful night landing at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on Jan. 18, 1986. Image Credit: NASA
SOURCE:::: http://www.nasa.gov
Natarajan
Jan 14 2015
Take off with Natarajan 