[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
Science/Tech See other Science/Tech Articles Title: Watch the clouds of Mars fly by-Phoenix probe captures sky view as it tests more Red Planet soil Watch the clouds of Mars fly by-Phoenix probe captures sky view as it tests more Red Planet soil Image: Martian clouds NASA / JPL-Caltech / UA / TAMU Clouds scoot across the Martian sky in a movie clip consisting of 10 frames taken by the Surface Stereo Imager on NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander. This clip accelerates the motion. The camera took these 10 frames over a 10-minute period. Particles of water ice make up these clouds, like ice-crystal cirrus clouds on Earth. View related photos Space.com • Strange Clouds Spotted at the Edge of Space • New Maps Detail Solar System Objects • DC-X Honored for Its Contributions, Potential • NASA Holds Space Shuttle Move for Tropical Storm • Image of the Day: Have I Got Neighbors? INTERACTIVE Mars double-take An in-depth look at NASA's twin rovers Mad about Mars More resources, including latest Mars images: Mars exploration at NASA Europe's Mars Express Greatest hits from Mars Take MSNBC's quiz on Mars facts Full coverage: "Return to the Red Planet" Related stories What’s this? Mars' ice clouds eat up ozone Cracks appear in ice under Mars lander Mars lander pulls all-nighter Mars ice! Now you see it, now you don’t Phoenix Lander digs deeper into Mars Most popular • Most viewed • Top rated • Most e-mailed Palin fires back at media, ‘Washington elite’ Detroit mayor gets 4 months jail in plea deal Millions warily watch Hanna's trek toward U.S. Sony recalls laptops for possible overheating Palin e-mails show intense interest in trooper Most viewed on msnbc.com Pets not left behind in New Orleans evacuation Phelps to use $1 million bonus to start charity Fish oil helps patients with chronic heart failure India's 'untouchables' last to be helped in floods Government questions plastic bottles' safety Most viewed on msnbc.com Sony recalls laptops for possible overheating Detroit mayor gets 4 months jail in plea deal Palin fires back at media, ‘Washington elite’ In a more diverse America, a mostly white RNC How to get your girlfriend into gaming Most viewed on msnbc.com By Andrea Thompson updated 5:43 p.m. ET, Tues., Sept. 2, 2008 There's a new Martian movie, though it's not quite feature-length. A series of still images taken by the Phoenix Mars Lander of water-ice clouds sailing overhead on the Red Planet has been turned into a short animation by NASA mission scientists. "The images were taken as part of a campaign to see clouds and track wind. These are clearly ice clouds," said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University. Lemmon is the lead scientist for the lander's Surface Stereo Imager, which snapped the pictures of the clouds during a 10-minute period last Friday. The resulting animation is just a few seconds long. Story continues below [5;advertisement Phoenix, which landed on Mars on May 25, has also begun to analyze a sample of Martian dirt take from the deepest trench dug so far by the lander. On Sunday, Phoenix's robotic arm sprinkled a small fraction of the estimated 3 cubic inches (50 cubic centimeters) of dirt that was scooped out of the informally-named "Stone Soup" trench on Saturday. The $420 million mission, which began its 30-day extended mission on Aug. 27, is analyzing the Martian regolith for signs of potential past habitability. This latest sample will be analyzed by the lander's wet chemistry lab, which dissolves samples in water brought from Earth to see what soluble minerals might be in the dirt. The Stone Soup trench, from which the sample was taken, lies between two of the polygon-shaped hummocks that cover the vast arctic plains where Phoenix landed. Mission scientists are interested to see whether the material in this sample will be different from earlier samples, which were taken from trenches near the center of a polygon. Images of the sample material taken inside the scoop on Sunday showed that the dirt was clumping differently from previous samples. "This is pretty exciting stuff and we are anxious to find out what makes this deeper soil cloddier than the other samples," said Doug Ming, a Phoenix science team member from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Images of fresh dirt dug and discarded from Stone Soup have given the team some clues as to the composition of the sample. Observations of the spectrum of the regolith don't show any signs of water ice binding the particles together, but bigger clumps of dirt have a texture that could indicate a high concentration of salts. The wet chemistry lab would be able to identify any soluble salts in the sample.
Poster Comment: see the link to view video.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: gengis gandhi (#0)
Is he related to Emperor Ming the Merciless of the Planet Mongo?
I had not considered that, but now that you mention it it seems fairly obvious. nepotism, and all that shit. ice, water, clouds on mars..... well thats not in the bible.
Many believe in either intelligent design or evolution...but I am opting for unintelligent design, where god is a retarded kid who likes setting army men on fire and leaving his toys out in the rain. Gengis Gandhi, Troubled Genius We come from the land of the ice and snow, On we sweep with threshing oar, Our only goal will be the western shore.
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||