Dark-Orange And Charcoal-Black Terrain

NASA today released the most detailed set of images ever taken of the distant dwarf planet Pluto. The images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show an icy and dark molasses-colored, mottled world that is undergoing seasonal changes in its surface color and brightness. Pluto has become significantly redder, while its illuminated northern hemisphere is getting brighter.

These changes are most likely consequences of surface ices sublimating on the sunlit pole and then refreezing on the other pole as the dwarf planet heads into the next phase of its 248-year-long seasonal cycle. The dramatic change in color apparently took place in a two-year period, from 2000 to 2002.

The Hubble images will remain our sharpest view of Pluto until NASA's New Horizons probe is within six months of its Pluto flyby. The Hubble pictures are proving invaluable for picking out the planet's most interesting-looking hemisphere for the New Horizons spacecraft to swoop over when it flies by Pluto in 2015.

Though Pluto is arguably one of the public's favorite planetary objects, it is also the hardest of which to get a detailed portrait because the world is small and very far away. Hubble resolves surface variations a few hundred miles across, which are too coarse for understanding surface geology.

But in terms of surface color and brightness Hubble reveals a complex-looking and variegated world with white, dark-orange and charcoal-black terrain. The overall color is believed to be a result of ultraviolet radiation from the distant sun breaking up methane that is present on Pluto's surface, leaving behind a dark and red carbon-rich residue.

When Hubble pictures taken in 1994 are compared with a new set of images taken in 2002 to 2003, astronomers see evidence that the northern polar region has gotten brighter, while the southern hemisphere has gotten darker. These changes hint at very complex processes affecting the visible surface, and the new data will be used in continued research.
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Solar Dynamics Observatory Set to Launch on Feb. 10

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is set to launch on Feb. 10 at 10:26 a.m. EST from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Weather for launch day stands at a 60 percent chance of "go" for liftoff.

A prelaunch news conference will be held at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, followed by the mission science briefing. Both will be carried live on NASA TV. Live coverage of the launch will begin at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday on NASA TV and the launch blog.

SDO's unprecedented mission will study the sun and its dynamic behavior. Onboard telescopes will scrutinize sunspots and solar flares using more pixels and colors than any other observatory in the history of solar physics. And SDO will reveal the sun’s hidden secrets in a prodigious rush of pictures.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) will be taking a closer look at the Sun, the source of all Space Weather. Space Weather affects not only our lives here on Earth, but the Earth itself, and everything outside its atmosphere (astronauts and satellites out in space and even the other planets).

The Sun, our closest star, is still a great mystery to scientists. SDO will help us understand where the Sun's energy comes from, how the inside of the Sun works, and how energy is stored and released in the Sun's atmosphere... yes, the Sun has an atmosphere! By better understanding the Sun and how it works, we will be able to better predict and better forecast the "weather out in space" providing earlier warnings to protect our astronauts and satellites floating around out there.

SDO is the first satellite under the Living with a Star (LWS) program at NASA. The spacecraft is being designed to fly for five years. However, since satellites go through a lot of testing and retesting, they often keep working long past their initial mission life. SOHO for example, which was built to fly for five years, in 2005 celebrated its 10 year anniversary in 2005!

SDO is unlike any other satellite. It will be collecting huge amounts of data everyday. In fact SDO will produce enough data to fill a single CD every 36 seconds.Patio misting systems | Misting cooling system | Mist cooling | Outdoor cooling systems | Patio cooling systems | Misting fan

Endeavour Launch Rescheduled for Monday, Feb. 8

Commander George Zamka is first to board and be seating inside Endeavour. First-time flyer, Pilot Terry Virts, Mission Specialists Kathryn Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken are next to be strapped securely in their seats.

Communication checks are being conducted between the astronauts, Mission Control in Houston and the Launch Control Center at Kennedy, as each takes their seat.

When all the crew members are seated, the Closeout Crew will close the hatch, pressurize the crew cabin and check for leaks, then finish remaining work inside the pad's White Room before departing.

Astronaut Chris Ferguson is flying weather reconnaissance in the Shuttle Training Aircraft keeping Mission Control informed of current conditions at Kennedy Space Center.

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A Little Telescope Goes a Long Way

NASA astronomers have successfully demonstrated that a David of a telescope can tackle Goliath-size questions in the quest to study Earth-like planets around other stars. Their work, reported today in the journal Nature, provides a new tool for ground-based observatories, promising to accelerate by years the search for prebiotic, or life-related, molecules on planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system.

The scientists reported on a new technique used with a relatively small Earth-based telescope to identify an organic molecule in the atmosphere of a Jupiter-size planet nearly 63 light-years away. The measurement revealed details of the exoplanet's atmospheric composition and conditions, an unprecedented achievement from an Earth-based observatory.

The surprising new finding comes from a venerable 30-year-old, 3-meter-diameter (10-foot) telescope that ranks 40th among ground-based telescopes - NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

The new technique promises to further speed the work of studying planet atmospheres by enabling studies from the ground that were previously possible only through a few very high-performance space telescopes. "Given favorable observing conditions, this work suggests we may be able to detect organic molecules in the atmospheres of terrestrial planets with existing instruments," said lead author Mark Swain, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. This can allow fast and economical advances in focused studies of exoplanet atmospheres, accelerating our understanding of the growing stable of exoplanets.

"The fact that we have used a relatively small, ground-based telescope is exciting because it implies that the largest telescopes on the ground, using this technique, may be able to characterize terrestrial exoplanet targets," Swain said.

Currently, more than 400 exoplanets are known. Most are gaseous like Jupiter, but some "super-Earths" are thought to be large terrestrial, or rocky, worlds. A true Earth-like planet, with the same size as our planet and distance from its star, has yet to be discovered. NASA's Kepler mission is searching from space now, and is expected to find several of these earthly worlds by the end of its three-and-a-half-year prime mission.

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NASA's Aquarius Gets a Presidential Visit

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (center in blue) was briefed Jan. 20 during a tour of the facility where the JPL-built Aquarius instrument is being integrated with the Argentinian satellite, called the Satélite de Aplicaciones Científicas (SAC-D).

The visit took place during the kickoff of the satellite's system contractor new satellite integration facility in Bariloche, Argentina. The president met with Aquarius/SAC-D team members from NASA, Argentina's space agency, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales, and the contractor.

The primary instrument on the mission, Aquarius is designed to provide monthly global maps of how salt concentration varies on the ocean surface -- a key indicator of ocean circulation and its role in climate change. Seven Argentine space agency-sponsored instruments will provide environmental data for a wide range of applications, including natural hazards, land processes, epidemiological studies and air quality issues.

The minimum three-year mission is scheduled to launch this year from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.

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NASA Extends Cassini's Tour of Saturn

NASA will extend the international Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn and its moons to 2017. The agency's fiscal year 2011 budget provides a $60 million per year extension for continued study of the ringed planet.

"This is a mission that never stops providing us surprising scientific results and showing us eye popping new vistas," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "The historic traveler's stunning discoveries and images have revolutionized our knowledge of Saturn and its moons."

Cassini launched in October 1997 with the European Space Agency's Huygens probe. The spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004. The probe was equipped with six instruments to study Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Cassini's 12 instruments have returned a daily stream of data from Saturn's system for nearly six years. The project was scheduled to end in 2008, but the mission received a 27-month extension to Sept. 2010.

"The extension presents a unique opportunity to follow seasonal changes of an outer planet system all the way from its winter to its summer," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Some of Cassini's most exciting discoveries still lie ahead."

This second extension, called the Cassini Solstice Mission, enables scientists to study seasonal and other long-term weather changes on the planet and its moons. Cassini arrived just after Saturn's northern winter solstice, and this extension continues until a few months past northern summer solstice in May 2017. The northern summer solstice marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern hemisphere.

A complete seasonal period on Saturn has never been studied at this level of detail. The Solstice mission schedule calls for an additional 155 orbits around the planet, 54 flybys of Titan and 11 flybys of the icy moon Enceladus.

The mission extension also will allow scientists to continue observations of Saturn's rings and the magnetic bubble around the planet known as the magnetosphere. The spacecraft will make repeated dives between Saturn and its rings to obtain in depth knowledge of the gas giant. During these dives, the spacecraft will study the internal structure of Saturn, its magnetic fluctuations and ring mass.

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Payload and Weather "Go" for Launch

At today's prelaunch briefing held at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, managers reported space shuttle Endeavour, its payload and crew are ready for launch at 4:39 a.m. EST on Sunday for the 13-day STS-130 mission.

NASA Test Director Jeremy Graeber reported everything is progressing on schedule for Endeavour's flight to deliver the Italian-built Tranquility node and cupola to the International Space Station. "There are no issues and preps are going well," said Graeber.

According to Graeber the water leak that occurred in the Launch Control Center last week was confined to a south stairwell and cleanup was successfully accomplished.

"To summarize, Endeavour and the launch team are all ready to proceed and we're all very excited to pick up with the countdown leading up to Sunday's early morning launch," said Graeber.

Joe Delai, the STS-130 payload manager who leads the team of engineers and technicians assembling and testing the payloads, said, "This is one of the most complex modules I've seen in awhile. (But) we're ready for flight."

Shuttle Weather Officer Kathy Winters reported the forecast is looking good for launch day and for the loading of propellants into Endeavour's external fuel tank. Winds may be a little breezy but at this time there is only a 30 percent chance of weather hindering a successful launch on Sunday.

At 2 a.m. Thursday, NASA's official launch countdown clock begins counting backward toward Sunday's liftoff.

Tune in to the STS-130 mission's prelaunch news conference that will be aired tomorrow at 10 a.m. on NASA TV at www.nasa.gov/ntv.

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Measuring the Sun's Hidden Variability

Every 11 years, the sun undergoes a furious upheaval. Dark sunspots burst forth from beneath the sun's surface. Explosions as powerful as a billion atomic bombs spark intense flares of high-energy radiation. Clouds of gas big enough to swallow planets break away and billow into space. It's a flamboyant display of stellar power.

So why can't we see any of it?

Almost none of the drama of Solar Maximum is visible to the human eye. Look at the sun in the noontime sky and—ho-hum—it's the same old bland ball of light.

"The problem is, human eyes are tuned to the wrong wavelength," explains Tom Woods, a solar physicist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "If you want to get a good look at solar activity, you need to look in the EUV."

EUV is short for "extreme ultraviolet," a high-energy form of ultraviolet radiation with wavelengths between 1 and 120 nanometers. EUV photons are much more energetic and dangerous than the ordinary UV rays that cause sunburns. Fortunately for humans, Earth's atmosphere blocks solar EUV; otherwise a day at the beach could be fatal.

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Solar Dynamics Observatory Set to Launch Feb. 9

Solar Dynamics Observatory Set For Launch

The Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is set to launch from Florida no earlier than 10:30 a.m. EST on Feb. 9, on an unprecedented mission to study the sun and its dynamic behavior.

Onboard telescopes will scrutinize sunspots and solar flares using more pixels and colors than any other observatory in the history of solar physics. And SDO will reveal the sun’s hidden secrets in a prodigious rush of pictures.

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NASA FY 2011 Budget

FY 2011 Budget

› FY 2011 Budget Overview (387 Kb PDF)
› Administrator Bolden's Statement (68 Kb)
› Deputy Administrator's Remarks at the OSTP Budget Announcement (68 Kb)
› Office of Management and Budget: FY 2011 NASA Fact Sheet→
› NASA Budget Details From OMB→
› Joint Statement From NASA Administrator Bolden and John P. Holdren, Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy (112 Kb PDF)
› Joint NASA-OSTP Factsheet (70 Kb PDF)
› Statement from Buzz Aldrin: A New Direction in Space (13 Kb PDF)
› Statement From Norman R. Augustine (11 Kb PDF)

Feb. 1, 2010 FY 2011 NASA Budget Teleconference

› Listen Now (14 MB)

Previous Years' Budgets

› FY 2010 | › FY 2009 | › FY 2008 | › FY 2007
› FY 2006 | › FY 2005 | › FY 2004 | › FY 2003 and Earlier

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