Aurorae on Jupiter

Originally shared by Anand Sankar

Aurorae on Jupiter
 
Jupiter has aurorae. Like Earth, the magnetic field of the gas giant funnels charged particles released from the Sun onto the poles. As these particles strike the atmosphere, electrons are temporarily knocked away from existing gas molecules. Electric force attracts these electrons back. As the electrons recombine to remake neutral molecules, auroral light is emitted. In the featured recently released composite image by the Hubble Space Telescope taken in ultraviolet light, the aurorae appear as annular sheets around the pole. Unlike Earth's aurorae, Jupiter's aurorae include several bright streaks and dots. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is visible on the lower right. Recent aurorae on Jupiter have been particularly strong -- a fortunate coincidence with the arrival of NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter last week. Juno was able to monitor the Solar Wind as it approached Jupiter, enabling a better understanding of aurorae in general, including on Earth.
 
 
*Image Credit: *NASA, ESA, Hubble
 
#spaceexploration #nasa #esa

Cassini's October 28 'Plume Dive'

Originally shared by Pierre Markuse

Cassini's October 28 'Plume Dive'

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will sample the ocean of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Wednesday, October 28, when it flies through the moon's plume of icy spray. Scientists hope this close flyby will shed light on what's happening beneath the moon's icy surface. The spacecraft has flown closer to the surface of Enceladus before, but never this low directly through the active plume.

Full story here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4750

Video about the plume dive:
https://youtu.be/BZ1KowQXc3Y

Enceladus

Enceladus has a diameter of 504 kilometers (313 miles) and is orbiting Saturn every 1.4 Earth days at a distance of 238,037 km (147,909 miles). It was discovered August 28, 1789 by William Herschel. More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enceladus

More on Cassini:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/main/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens

Image credit: PIA20013: This artist's rendering showing a cutaway view into the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus.  NASA/JPL-Caltech http://goo.gl/y3hhjP

#science   #cassini   #enceladus   #plumedive   #space   #spaceexploration   #solarsystem   #saturn

Pluto mountain range close-up image colorized and slightly sharpened

Originally shared by Pierre Markuse

Pluto mountain range close-up image colorized and slightly sharpened

I took the recently published close-up of a mountain range on Pluto and colorized it using the color scheme from previous color images. Image is slightly zoomed in and sharpened.

Original image and information can be found here:
http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-icy-mountains-of-pluto

More on the New Horizons space probe and its mission:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons

Image credit: Close-up image of a region near Pluto’s equator NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI / Colorized and edited by Pierre Markuse 

#science  #newhorizons  #pluto  #nasa  #space  #spaceexploration   #solarsystem  #plutoflyby

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#robotics   #space   #spaceexploration   #artificialintelligence  

Originally shared by Singularity 2045

#Singularity. Artificial Intelligence.

"Beaming software is one way robots throughout the solar system can take advantage of exponential advances on Earth. In a few more years, the computing systems on interplanetary robots will be able to run extremely complex AI programs due to further advances in exponential technology. Perhaps advanced chips will be sent out to be fitted onto older spacecraft, and extend the life of rovers like Curiosity."
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/06/soon-space-robots-like-curiosity-may-evolve-even-greater-intelligence/