Researchers determine the origin of Annama meteorite

Researchers determine the origin of Annama meteorite

                                                          An international team led by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has determined the orbit of Annama, a new characterized meteorite from a fireball occurred on April 19th 2014 at the Kola Peninsula (Russia). Researchers highlight the importance of this finding because only the orbit of another 22 meteorites is known so far.

 The characterization of Annama indicates that this is an ordinary H5 chondrite, a group of meteorites with high strength that constitutes 31% of meteorite falls. Researchers have also searched for the existence of some asteroid, among all known, that may have been fragmented and resulted in the meteorite. According to the paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society journal, the orbital evolution of Annama shows some similarity to the 2014 UR116, a potentially dangerous asteroid (i.e. an object that might collide the Earth) of about 400 meters in diameter that was discovered last year.

The reconstruction of the orbit

CSIC researchers compared the orbit of Annama with the evolution of a dozen orbits of near-Earth asteroids, reconstructing how their orbits evolved in the solar system over the past 10,000 years. Through this method, they explain, the degree of orbital similarity is determined and, in the most favourable cases, it can be established if both objects have a common origin.

Members of several research centres from Finland and Russia reconstructed the trajectory of the fireball and calculated the location of the fall using the data from three stations of the Finnish Fireball Network and the filming of a security camera from the Kola Peninsula. One month later, meteor rocks were recovered in this peninsula. Meanwhile, Josep Maria Trigo (CSIC researcher at the Institute of Space Sciences, a CSIC centre associated with the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia-IEEC) and his team determined its orbit and reconstructed the orbital evolution of Annama in the Solar System in order to compare it with a dozen asteroids with which, a priori, showed orbital similarity at the present time. Most of them are similar by chance, so an orbital integration in the past of the objects is required to decipher if the dynamic link is possible.

                                                            The analysis of the orbital evolution of the meteorite has showed, according to researchers, a "disturbing similarity" with the evolution of 2014 UR116 which, given its size and minimum distance of intersection with the orbit of the Earth, has been classified as a potentially dangerous asteroid. Currently, 1,573 asteroids of this type are known so researchers are investigating to what extent they can pose a danger.

Origin of meteorites

Trigo states: "While it is true that many of these dangerous projectiles come from the main belt of asteroids after being gravitationally scattered towards the Earth by the so-called planetary resonances, in 2007 we proposed other physical mechanisms that enable these rocks to be detached from asteroids or comets as they undergo close approaches to our planet". He also adds: "The tidal effect on an asteroid, which rapidly rotates under the gravitational field of a planet, can fragment these objects or release large rocks from its surface, which could then become such dangerous projectiles at a local scale as the one fell in Cheliábinsk (Russia) on February 15th 2013".

 

                                                  Manuel Moreno-Ibáñez, CSIC researcher that participated in the study, explains: "The data we have obtained provided new clues about the origin of the rocks with a few meters in diameter that produce meteorite falls. So far, we only know the orbits of other 22 meteorites, and not always with the sought accuracy". Trigo adds: "In addition, Annama is a fascinating meteorite because it reveals the processes taken place during the formation of the Solar System, as well as more details about the thermal processing suffered by the asteroid it comes from".

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-04-annama-meteorite.html#jCp

Searching for Water in the Solar System and Beyond

Поиск воды в Солнечной системе и за ее пределами

В качестве миссий NASA исследовать нашу Солнечную систему и искать новые мирыони находят воду в неожиданных местах. Вода-это лишь один кусочек нашего поиска обитаемых планет и жизни вне Земли, но ссылок много, казалось бы, несвязанных миров удивительным образом.

Пожалуй, самым удивительным водные миры пяти ледяных спутников Юпитера и Сатурна, которые показывают убедительные доказательства океаны под их поверхностей: Ганимед, Европа и Каллисто на Юпитера, и Энцелад и Титан у Сатурна. Ученые с помощью НАСА'ы космического телескопа "Хаббл" недавно предоставил мощные доказательства того, что Ганимед имеет соленой воды, под поверхностью океана, скорее всего, зажатой между двумя слоями льда.

В этой концепции художника, луна Ганимед орбиты гигантской планеты Юпитер. Космический телескоп "Хаббл" наблюдали полярные сияния на Луне, генерируемых Ганимеда магнитного поля. Солевое океан под луной ледяной корочкой лучше всего объясняет сдвиг в аврорального пояса измеряется Хаббл.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Подробнее: в Солнечной системе и за ее пределами купается в воде                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Кредит изображения: НАСА/ЕКА

Scientists Take Aim at Four Corners Methane Mystery

Scientists Take Aim at Four Corners Methane Mystery

                                                                                                               Researchers from several institutions are in the Four Corners region of the U.S. Southwest with a suite of airborne and ground-based instruments, aiming to uncover reasons for a mysterious methane "hot spot" detected from space.

"With all the ground-based and airborne resources that the different groups are bringing to the region, we have the unique chance to unequivocally solve the Four Corners mystery," said Christian Frankenberg, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, who is heading NASA's part of the effort. Other investigators are from the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in Boulder, Colorado; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Last fall, researchers including Frankenberg reported that a small region around the Four Corners intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah had the highest concentration of methane over background levels of any part of the United States. An instrument on a European Space Agency satellite measuring greenhouse gases showed a persistent atmospheric hot spot in the area between 2003 and 2009. The amount of methane observed by the satellite was much higher than previously estimated.

The satellite observations were not detailed enough to reveal the actual sources of the methane in the Four Corners. Likely candidates include venting from oil and gas activities, which are primarily coalbed methane exploration and extraction in this region; active coal mines; and natural gas seeps.

Researchers from CIRES, NOAA's Earth Systems Research Laboratory and Michigan are conducting a field campaign called TOPDOWN (Twin Otter Projects Defining Oil Well and Natural gas emissions) 2015, bringing airborne and ground-based instruments to investigate possible sources of the methane hot spot. The JPL team will join the effort on April 17-24. The groups are coordinating their measurements, but each partner agency will deploy its own suite of instruments.

The JPL participants will fly two complementary remote sensing instruments on two Twin Otter research aircraft. The Next-Generation Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRISng), which observes spectra of reflected sunlight, flies at a higher altitude and will be used to map methane at fine resolution over the entire region. Using this information and ground measurements from the other research teams, the Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) will fly over suspected methane sources, making additional, highly sensitive measurements of methane. Depending on its flight altitude, the NASA aircraft can image methane features with a spatial resolution better than three feet (one meter) square. In other words, it can create a mosaic showing how methane levels vary every few feet, enabling the identification of individual sources.

With the combined resources, the investigators hope to quantify the region's overall methane emissions and pinpoint contributions from different sources. They will track changes over the course of the month-long effort and study how meteorology transports emissions through the region.

"If we can verify the methane detected by the satellite and identify its sources, decision-makers will have critical information for any actions they are considering," said CIRES scientist Gabrielle Pétron, one of the mission’s investigators. Part of President Obama’s recent Climate Action Plan calls for reductions in methane emissions.

Besides the groups mentioned above, the research team also includes scientists from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder; the U.S. Bureau of Land Management; and the state of New Mexico. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about TOPDOWN 2015, see: http://cires.colorado.edu/news/press/mapping-methane                                                                                                                             http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/csd/groups/csd7/measurements/2014topdown/                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Why Is Methane Important?

Methane is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in Earth's atmosphere and warms it. It is the third most abundant greenhouse gas, behind water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Methane is much less prevalent in Earth's atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but molecule for molecule, it packs a much bigger punch. Because of its potency and its potential to contribute to climate change, scientists are interested in how its concentrations may be changing.

Currently, more than half of atmospheric methane comes from human-related sources, such as livestock, landfills and leaks of natural gas into the atmosphere during mining, storage, transportation and distribution. Natural gas is primarily composed of methane.

                                         

The Solar System and Beyond is Awash in Water

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, yet it links many seemingly unrelated worlds in surprising ways.

"NASA science activities have provided a wave of amazing findings related to water in recent years that inspire us to continue investigating our origins and the fascinating possibilities for other worlds, and life, in the universe," said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for the agency. "In our lifetime, we may very well finally answer whether we are alone in the solar system and beyond."

The chemical elements in water, hydrogen and oxygen, are some of the most abundant elements in the universe. Astronomers see the signature of water in giant molecular clouds between the stars, in disks of material that represent newborn planetary systems, and in the atmospheres of giant planets orbiting other stars.

There are several worlds thought to possess liquid water beneath their surfaces, and many more that have water in the form of ice or vapor. Water is found in primitive bodies like comets and asteroids, and dwarf planets like Ceres. The atmospheres and interiors of the four giant planets -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune -- are thought to contain enormous quantities of the wet stuff, and their moons and rings have substantial water ice.

Perhaps the most surprising water worlds are the five icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn that show strong evidence of oceans beneath their surfaces: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto at Jupiter, and Enceladus and Titan at Saturn.

Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently provided powerful evidence that Ganymede has a saltwater, sub-surface ocean, likely sandwiched between two layers of ice.

Europa and Enceladus are thought to have an ocean of liquid water beneath their surface in contact with mineral-rich rock, and may have the three ingredients needed for life as we know it: liquid water, essential chemical elements for biological processes, and sources of energy that could be used by living things. NASA's Cassini mission has revealed Enceladus as an active world of icy geysers. Recent research suggests it may have hydrothermal activity on its ocean floor, an environment potentially suitable for living organisms.

NASA spacecraft have also found signs of water in permanently shadowed craters on Mercury and our moon, which hold a record of icy impacts across the ages like cryogenic keepsakes.

While our solar system may seem drenched in some places, others seem to have lost large amounts of water.

On Mars, NASA spacecraft have found clear evidence that the Red Planet had water on its surface for long periods in the distant past. NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover discovered an ancient streambed that existed amidst conditions favorable for life as we know it.

More recently, NASA scientists using ground-based telescopes were able to estimate the amount of water Mars has lost over the eons. They concluded the planet once had enough liquid water to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars' northern hemisphere, in some regions reaching depths greater than a mile (1.6 kilometers). But where did the water go?

It's clear some of it is in the Martian polar ice caps and below the surface. We also think much of Mars' early atmosphere was stripped away by the wind of charged particles that streams from the sun, causing the planet to dry out. NASA's MAVEN mission is hard at work following this lead from its orbit around Mars.

The story of how Mars dried out is intimately connected to how the Red Planet's atmosphere interacts with the solar wind. Data from the agency's solar missions -- including STEREO, Solar Dynamics Observatory and the planned Solar Probe Plus -- are vital to helping us better understand what happened.

Understanding the distribution of water in our solar system tells us a great deal about how the planets, moons, comets and other bodies formed 4.5 billion years ago from the disk of gas and dust that surrounded our sun. The space closer to the sun was hotter and drier than the space farther from the sun, which was cold enough for water to condense. The dividing line, called the "frost line," sat around Jupiter's present-day orbit. Even today, this is the approximate distance from the sun at which the ice on most comets begins to melt and become "active." Their brilliant spray releases water ice, vapor, dust and other chemicals, which are thought to form the bedrock of most worlds of the frigid outer solar system.

Scientists think it was too hot in the solar system's early days for water to condense into liquid or ice on the inner planets, so it had to be delivered -- possibly by comets and water-bearing asteroids. NASA's Dawn mission is currently studying Ceres, which is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Researchers think Ceres might have a water-rich composition similar to some of the bodies that brought water to the three rocky, inner planets, including Earth.

The amount of water in the giant planet Jupiter holds a critical missing piece to the puzzle of our solar system's formation. Jupiter was likely the first planet to form, and it contains most of the material that wasn't incorporated into the sun. The leading theories about its formation rest on the amount of water the planet soaked up. To help solve this mystery, NASA's Juno mission will measure this important quantity beginning in mid-2016.

Looking further afield, observing other planetary systems as they form is like getting a glimpse of our own solar system's baby pictures, and water is a big part of that story. For example, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has observed signs of a hail of water-rich comets raining down on a young solar system, much like the bombardment planets in our solar system endured in their youth.

With the study of exoplanets -- planets that orbit other stars -- we are closer than ever to finding out if other water-rich worlds like ours exist. In fact, our basic concept of what makes planets suitable for life is closely tied to water: Every star has a habitable zone, or a range of distances around it in which temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission was designed with this in mind. Kepler looks for planets in the habitable zone around many types of stars.

Recently verifying its thousandth exoplanet, Kepler data confirm that the most common planet sizes are worlds just slightly larger than Earth. Astronomers think many of those worlds could be entirely covered by deep oceans. Kepler's successor, K2, continues to watch for dips in starlight to uncover new worlds.

The agency's upcoming TESS mission will search nearby, bright stars in the solar neighborhood for Earth- and super-Earth-sized exoplanets. Some of the planets TESS discovers may have water, and NASA's next great space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, will examine the atmospheres of those special worlds in great detail.

It's easy to forget that the story of Earth's water, from gentle rains to raging rivers, is intimately connected to the larger story of our solar system and beyond. But our water came from somewhere -- every world in our solar system got its water from the same shared source. So it's worth considering that the next glass of water you drink could easily have been part of a comet, or an ocean moon, or a long-vanished sea on the surface of Mars. And note that the night sky may be full of exoplanets formed by similar processes to our home world, where gentle waves wash against the shores of alien seas.

For more information about NASA's exploration of the solar system and beyond, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/

The Glow of the Lagoon Nebula

The Glow of the Lagoon Nebula                     

                                                                                    Gas and dust condense, beginning the process of creating new stars in this image of Messier 8, also known as the Lagoon Nebula. Located four to five thousand light-years away, in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer), the nebula is a giant interstellar cloud, one hundred light-years across. It boasts many large, hot stars, whose ultraviolet radiation sculpts the gas and dust into unusual shapes. Two of these giant stars illuminate the brightest part of the nebula, known as the Hourglass Nebula, a spiralling, funnel-like shape near its centre. Messier 8 is one of the few star-forming nebulae visible to the unaided eye, and was discovered as long ago as 1747, although the full range of colours wasn’t visible until the advent of more powerful telescopes. The Lagoon Nebula derives its name from the wide lagoon-shaped dark lane located in the middle of the nebula that divides it into two glowing sections.

This image combines observations performed through three different filters (B, V, R) with the 1.5-metre Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Credit:

ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/ R. Gendler, U.G. Jørgensen, K. Harpsøe

The Omega Nebula

The Omega Nebula                                        

                                                                     

Three-colour composite image of the Omega Nebula (Messier 17, or NGC 6618), based on images obtained with the EMMI instrument on the ESO 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory. North is down and East is to the right in the image. It spans an angle equal to about one third the diameter of the Full Moon, corresponding to about 15 light-years at the distance of the Omega Nebula. The three filters used are B (blue), V ("visual", or green) and R (red).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Credit:ESO

Американские эксперты назвали сроки достижения человеком Марса                                          

  

Эксперты Планетарного общества в ходе заседания, проходившего 2 апреля, назвали предполагаемые сроки освоения человеком Марса.  Про мнению экспертов, достичь орбиты Марса астронавты смогут к 2033 году, а к 2039 они совершат первую высадку на поверхность планеты.

Как отмечают специалисты, за 18 лет с 2015 по 2033 годы в США может смениться как минимум три администрации президента, и экспертам не хотелось бы, чтобы это привело к изменениям в космической политике США.

Также ученые озабочены целесообразностью орбитальной миссии на Марсе. По их мнению, из-за продолжительного полета астронавтов к планете и сильной радиации не имеет смысла затягивать их пребывание на орбите, а гораздо разумнее приступить к спуску на поверхность Марса, где люди, вероятно, проведут не один месяц.

Отдельно ученые отметили прогресс в освоении космоса Китаем. Несмотря на то, что в первой половине 1990-х годов НАСА из-за промышленного шпионажа заблокировало участие Поднебесной в проекте Международной космической станции (МКС), страна к 2022 году планирует завершить развертывание национальной орбитальной станции.

Эксперты сожалеют о планах России выйти из проекта МКС после 2024 года, однако отмечают, что средств, которые США выделяют НАСА для эксплуатации американского сегмента станции, будет достаточно для ее функционирования независимо от России.

Большие надежды ученые связывают с участием бизнеса в освоении космоса. Так, в сентябре 2014 года НАСА официально объявило, что выбрало компании Boeing и SpaceX для заключения многомиллиардного контракта на строительство пилотируемых многоразовых космических кораблей и средств их выведения на орбиту. Согласно договору, на разработку CST-100 агентство выделит Boeing 4,2 миллиарда долларов, а корабли серии Dragon частной компании SpaseX уже летают к МКС.

Неправительственное Планетарное общество основано в 1980 году Карлом Саганом, Луисом Фридманом и Брюсом Мюрреем. Оно занимается поддержкой и популяризацией исследований космоса, создания транспортных средств и космической политикой. К настоящему времени членами общества являются около 40 тысяч человек.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          источник:http://earth-chronicles.ru/news/2015-04-07-78435