May 28th

• 1774- The first Continental Congress convenes.
• 1830- President Andrew Jackson signs The Indian Removal Act which relocates Native Americans.
• 1859- Big Ben is delivered to the Palace of Westminster on a 16-horse carriage.
• 1930- The Chrylser Building, one the tallest building in the world, opens in New York.
• 1934- The first set of quintuplets that survive through infancy are born.  Somewhere, Octomom is smirking.  Look for more on the original quintuplets in today’s “Pointless Post of the Day”.
• 1937- The Golden Gate Bridge officially opens to vehicle traffic.
• 1952- Women in Greece are given the right to vote.
• 1964- The PLO is formed.
• 1996- Bill Clinton’s are convicted of fraud in the Whitewater land deal.
• 2002- The Mars Odyssey finds evidence of space ice.

Birthday Shoutouts

The Conservative Journal wishes a happy birthday to..

• The two surviving “original quintuplets” Cecile and Annette Dionne, 75.
• “The Empress of Soul” Gladys Knight, 65.
• My favorite mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani, 65.
• The only non-vomit-inducing member of “The View” Elisabeth Hasselbeck (Did you know her maiden name is “Filarski”?  How awesome is that!), 32.
• American pop singer Colbie Caillat, 24.

Happy Flag Day to those in the Philippines!

Leave your comments below or send an e-mail to theconservativejournal@gmail.com.  Don’t forget to bookmark The Conservative Journal and sign up for the RSS Feed and the daily e-mail newsletter.

Thanks for participating!

Rick

The Mars Odyssey spacecraft has discovered a curious sight on the red planet’s northern planes: mud volcanoes spurting methane gas and sediment up to the icy surface. Think about that for a second. What do you need to have mud? And what produces methane gas? That’s right, water and animals.

This is not to say the Martian underworld is overrun with jersey cows or giant sand worms. Animals aren’t the only source of methane, but scientists theorize that the gas could indeed be due to thriving microbes several miles beneath the Martian surface. Down there, warmer temperatures could theoretically permit things like mud and life to exist.

This news, reported in a New Scientist article, comes on the heels of a recent geological study on Earth supporting the notion that ancient, subterranean extremophiles might have survived the catastrophic celestial bombardment of the Earths’ crust 3.9 billion years ago.

Of course, theories regarding buried life on Mars might prove particularly difficult to substantiate. We’re pretty sure these volcanoes are spitting mud based on infrared analysis of the material’s rapid cooling following eruption, but the ability to drill miles into the ground is well beyond our current technology.

Look for life on Mars at HowStuffWorks.com:
How Will Landing on Mars work?
How the Mars Exploration Rovers Work
How Mars Odyssey Works
How Mars Works
Is there really water on Mars?

Science Friday http://www.sciencefriday.com/ has an excellent update on the Mars science program and planned projects for Mars. They also discuss possible missions in the next 5 to 10 years. The podcast should be available later today here: http://www.sciencefriday.com/feeds/about/.

Here’s the description of the segment from their web site:

“In this segment, we’ll get the big picture on science on the planet Mars. From orbiting observatories to roving rovers to the ditch-digging Phoenix — what have planetary scientists learned about Mars, and what remains to be discovered?

The most recent visitor to the Red Planet is NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, which launched in August 2007 as the first mission in NASA’s Scout Program. Phoenix is designed to study the history of water and habitability potential in the Martian arctic’s ice-rich soil. So far, the lander has identified water ice in soil samples, and has detected the chemical perchlorate in the soil, a sign of the presence of liquid water in the past.

The Phoenix Mars Lander joins the twin rovers of the Mars Exploration Rover project, Spirit and Opportunity, which have been in operation since 2004. Now running years past their planned lifetime on Mars, the rovers are still exploring the surface. Rover Opportunity recently exited the Victoria Crater after several months on the crater floor.

Several orbiting observatories, including Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are examining the different aspects of the planet from above. The orbiting platforms have studied the planet’s atmosphere, mapped its surface, and are also supporting the ground-based exploration missions.

We’re broadcasting this week from Tucson, Arizona, home base for NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander, as guests of Arizona Public Media.”

Image: NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity climbed out of “Victoria Crater” following the tracks it had made when it descended into the half-mile-diameter bowl nearly a year earlier.

The latest in the ongoing debate on whether or not there’s water to be found on the Red Planet.

Here’s more on this story from BBC News:

Nasa’s lander samples Mars water

Does it really make any sense looking for ice on Mars as life becomes extinct down here on Earth?

Wouldn’t it be more sensible if NASA’s budget for discovering life on Mars
was reallocated to securing life on Earth?

Original Entry:
Our world is a few extreme events away from total catastrophe

Related Links:

• NASA
• Biosphere 2
• Floods
• Drought (Index Page)
• Dead Zones
  

• Earth’s Collapsing Life Support Systems
• State of the world
• A Shrinking World
• Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN)
• First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities

.

For those of us with an interest in space, there has been a HUGE discovery. NASA’s 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft instruments have discovered enough water ice under the surface of Mars to fill Lake Michigan twice over. That’s a lot of water. And it brings us one enormous step closer to finding out whether or not life ever existed/could ever exist there.

With this new information, NASA may now commit to a manned landing within 20 years. Imagine the possibilities…

Phoenix pierwsze próbki gruntu miał dostarczyć do swego mini-laboratorium jeszcze w środę, niestety okazało się, że polecenia wysłane w tym celu z Ziemi nie zostały przekazane do lądownika. Sonda, która miała pośredniczyć w transmisji – Mars Odyssey, przeszła w tryb standby i nie przekazała instrukcji na powierzchnię Marsa. Pobieranie próbek zostało więc opóźnione o jeden dzień, a Phoenix zajął się zadaniami, które miał przygotowane na wypadek braku nowych komunikatów z Ziemi.

Podczas jednego z testów kopania, ramię odsłoniło biały materiał:

Naukowcy zastanawiają się czy to lód, czy sól (to świadczyłoby o występowaniu tu w przeszłości wody w stanie ciekłym), czy może jakaś inna substancja.

Mikroskop optyczny Phoenixa wykonał natomiast zdjęcie ziarnom pyłu, które opadły na lądownik:

Okazało się, że drobiny są bardzo małe – wielkości 1/10 średnicy ludzkiego włosa. Naukowcy mówią, że to jak dotąd najdokładniejsze zdjęcie, wykonane na innej planecie.

Z kolei zdjęcia przesłane dzisiejszej nocy (nocy na Ziemi, w Polsce – w miejscu lądowania Phoenixa panuje teraz dzień polarny i słońce pozostaje nad horyzontem przez całą dobę) pokazują, że lądownik otrzymał już nowe instrukcje i zabrał się do pobierania próbek.

Więcej informacji można się zapewne spodziewać wieczorem.

I thought I’d have a rundown of the planets (and dwarf planets) that currently have active probes.  There are a lot!

First, we have Mercury.  NASA’s MESSENGER probe has made its first flyby, and will have 2 more before it goes into orbit around Mercury.  I’m looking forward to seeing the science from this mission.  It’ll be nice to finally see a complete view of the planet.

Next, there’s Venus.  ESA’s Venus Express is currently orbiting the planet, studying the atmosphere.  It’ll also give some important information about whether the planet is volcanically active.

I won’t talk about Earth probes.  But the Moon has a couple orbiting it.  JAXA’s Kaguya (SELENE) is currently orbiting the Moon.  I remember when it returned HD video of the Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon.  And then China’s CNSA Chang’e 1 orbiter is making a 3D map of the Moon, as well as studying geology.

Mars has the largest number of active probes.  I’ll do them in chronological order of arrival at Mars.  First, we have NASA’s Mars Odyssey, which has been active since 2001.  It’s been mapping Mars, as well as acting as a relay for the two rovers.  Then there’s ESA’s Mars Express, which has been mapping, studying the atmosphere, and using radar to measure the planet’s permafrost.  Next, we have the two Mars Exploration Rovers from NASA, Spirit and Opportunity.  Spirit has been exploring Gusev Crater, while Opportunity has been exploring an area in Meridiani Planum, and has gone into Victoria Crater.  Both rovers have been operating since 2004.  Then there’s NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been returning unbelievably high resolution images of the surface of Mars.  The pictures are incredible, and have returned some very important discoveries.  Finally is NASA’s Phoenix, which recently landed in Mars’ arctic plains.  Its mission has only just begun, so there will be a lot of posts on this blog about Phoenix.

On to Vesta and Ceres.  Vesta is an asteroid and Ceres is a dwarf planet.  NASA’s Dawn is headed toward Vesta first, then will go to Ceres.  I’m looking forward to the science returned from this mission.

Saturn has a single probe orbiting it, Cassini.  It’s a collaboration of NASA, ESA and ASI (Italy).  It carried the Huygens probe, which landed on Titan.  Cassini has returned incredible science and pictures from Saturn and its moons, and is still going strong.  Titan, Enceladus and Hyperion have all been very interesting.

The former planet, current dwarf planet Pluto finally has a probe of its own.  NASA’s New Horizons is on its way to Pluto, and will arrive in 2015.  It’ll be a flyby, but we’ll be able to see what Pluto and Charon look like, finally.  We will also see the more recently discovered moons Nix and Hydra.  I can’t wait!

There’s a lot of exciting science being done right now in the Solar System.  But the future holds even more discoveries.  I’ll make another post about future missions to the planets.

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) took this picture of the Phoenix Lander gliding to the surface of Mars while it orbited overhead.

The Lander will soon be testing its robotic arm; first by unlatching its wrist and then flexing its elbow. This is critical to the success of the mission as the arm will be scooping soil samples of ice for analysis.

 Image: NASA/ JPL/ Caltech/ Univ of Arizona

This image shows the Phoenix craft parachute during its descent on May. It landed near the Heimdall crater at at distance of 12 miles in front of the crater. NASA is using both the MRO and another vehicle orbiting Mars, Odyssey, to communicate with the Phoenix Lander. Commands have been sent for the Lander to take pictures of the area around it and to begin to move its robotic arm.

During the next three months, the arm will dig in the soil near the lander and scoop samples of soil and ice to instruments on the lander deck. Following the commands this morning, its movements will begin with unlatching the wrist, then moving the arm upwards in a stair-step manner. These movements are schedule for Wednesday, May 28.

Overall, the Lander team is quite pleased with the landing of the craft and the position where it is situated on the surface of Mars.

The image below was taken today and relayed with other information to the MRO this evening, which transmitted the image and data to earth from its orbit around Mars.

… trwają przygotowania do przyjęcia nowego gościa. Phoenix nie będzie sam – obecnie Czerwoną Planetę okrążają trzy działające orbitery, a na jej powierzchni nadal pracują dwa łaziki (MER-y – Mars Exploration Rover) Spirit i Opportunity. Wszystkie orbitery dostosowały swoje trajektorie wokół planety w taki sposób aby w momencie przybycia Phoenixa znaleźć się nad miejscem jego lądowania. Mars Oddysey będzie przekazywać sygnały radiowe z lądownika na Ziemię (ma w tym doświadczenie, sonda pośredniczyła w sporej części transmisji z MER-ów), natomiast Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter oraz europejski Mars Express posłużą jako backup: nagrają sygnały z Phoenixa i przekażą potem całe pliki na Ziemię, aby zagwarantować, że żadne dane nie zostały utracone. Nawet łaziki MER wzięły udział w przygotowaniach, służąc za testowe źródło transmisji z powierzchni Marsa. Więcej tutaj.

Nadawanie sygnałów podczas procedury lądowania to efekt doświadczeń zebranych podczas katastrofy Mars Polar Landera w 1999 r. Wtedy lądownik zamilkł (planowo) przed wejściem w atmosferę i miał odezwać się po udanym lądowaniu, czego jak wiadomo już nie uczynił. I właściwie nie do końca wiadomo co się z nim stało. Transmisja podczas lądowania ma zapewnić stały strumień informacji o stanie aparatu.

The pictures below show a field of sand dunes at the floor of a crater in Noachis Terra, or Land of Noah. This large landmass is south of the Martian equator. Uzboi Valles, named after a dry riverbed in Russia, is at the western rim of the crater. The valley begins on the north rim of the Argyre basin, runs through several craters, then ends at the large crater Holden. Uzboi Valles is believed to have been formed by running water.

Image at Left Credit: NASA/JPL/ASU & Middle + Right images: NASA/JPL/MOLA

The center image shows where the picture at left is located, and for an even better perspective, the image at right shows the picture at a much greater distance.

The images above were taken by the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS), part of the Mars Odyssey Mission, which previously looked at: salt deposits in the Martian highlands, Martian atmospheric dust and Martian polar regions.

THEMIS settled into orbit around Mars during February, 2002, upon which time it began mapping operations using a 5-wavelength visual imaging system in combination with a 9-wavelength infrared imaging system.

Image: NASA/JPL/ University of Arizona

The image at left was taken by the Mars HIRISE mission, showing the ejecta blanket of an impact crater. Normally this is a symmetrical apron of debris that came out of a volcanic vent or volcano that surrounds a crater with a thick layer of debris at the crater’s rim thinning out to nothing a the blanket’s outer edge.

The ejecta blanket above is of a large impact crater, probably 20 km wide, or about 12.5 miles. This ejecta is rocky blown out from the crater as a result of high velocity impact of an asteroid, estimated at 100-200 meters in diameter. Millions of years of wind erosion has etched the surface and created a radial pattern extending outward from the crater.

El pasado húmedo de marte continúa siendo objeto de controversia a medida que los diferentes datos obtenidos dan pie a interpretaciones en uno u otro sentido. En este caso, cabría decir que los datos arrojan una de cal, o más precisamente una de sal, en relación a la existencia de abundante agua líquida superficial en Marte en algún momento remotamente antiguo. Concretamente, imágenes tomadas por la Mars Odyssey han permitido localizar unos 200 lugares en el hemisferio Sur de Marte (con área de 1-20 km²) cuyas características espectrales (analizadas gracias a la cámara THEMIS) son consistentes con sales cloradas. La imagen inferior en falso color muestra un detalle de dos de estas regiones (situadas en Terra Sirenum) en las que los depósitos salinos aparecen en tonos brillantes.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Arizona State University/University of Hawaii

Estos depósitos de sal se hallan típicamente en depresiones, con canales que fluyen hacia ellas, lo que indica que podría tratarse del resultado de la evaporación de agua superficial acumulada en las mismas. El grupo de investigadores que ha realizado el estudio ha publicado sus resultados en un artículo titulado

• Chloride-Bearing Materials in the Southern Highlands of Mars

aparecido hace un par de semanas en Science. Los depósitos pertenecen a periodos medios o tardíos de la Era Noeica, esto es, hace al menos 3600 millones de años, y están aflorando por la erosión de los materiales que los cubrían. Los depósitos están dispersos y no conectados entre sí, lo que no apoya la idea de un océano global. En cualquier caso, la sal es un buen conservante de materia orgánica, por lo que sería interesante estudiar muestras de estos depósitos en busca de la presencia de moléculas orgánicas en el primitivo Marte.

Un gruppo di ricercatori guidati da Mikki Osterloo dell’Università delle Hawaii ha scoperto e mappato le prime tracce di depositi di sale sulla superficie di Marte. La scoperta è stata possibile grazie alle immagini all’infrarosso fornite dal rilevatore termico Themis a bordo della sonda Mars Odyssey, che dal 2001 orbita attorno al pianeta rosso sulle tracce di attività vulcaniche e acqua.

Sviluppato dai ricercatori dell’Arizona State University, Themis può rilevare immagini a lunghezze d’onda multiple arrivando con l’infrarosso a un dettaglio massimo di cento metri quadrati di superficie marziana.

Nello studio pubblicato sulla rivista Science il gruppo guidato da Osterloo ha mostrato una mappatura dei depositi di sale presenti nella superficie del pianeta. Si tratta di circa 200 punti distribuiti attorno l’intero pianeta, ma soprattutto a medie e basse latitudini. Parliamo quindi dell’emisfero meridionale e degli altipiani costituiti dalla rocce più antiche del pianeta.

Secondo i ricercatori questi depositi di sale potrebbero indicare l’esistenza passata di grandi mari. «I depositi sono costituiti da aree che raggiungono dimensioni da 1 a 25 chilometri quadrati» ha spiegato Osterloo. «Ma siccome i depositi sembrano essere disconnessi uno dall’altro non pensiamo che questi possano aver avuto origine da una grande massa d’acqua» analoga a quella che si trova sulla superficie terrestre. «Molto probabilmente – ha continuato Osterloo – il sale può avere avuto origine da acque sotterranee che evaporavano dopo aver raggiunto la superficie del pianeta in particolari punti».

Secondo i ricercatori questi depositi sono quindi il frutto di un lungo processo di evaporazione delle acque sotterranee che potrebbe aver avuto origine circa 3,7 miliardi di anni fa. Non si tratterebbe però di un processo costante perché alcune evidenze suggeriscono che Marte subisca periodi intermittenti caratterizzati da fasi climatiche più umide e calde rispetto a quella secca attuale.

Per il lancio del rover di nuova generazione Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), previsto per dicembre 2009 (tagli ai finanziamenti permettendo), gli scienziati avevano finora preso in considerazione, come sito di atterraggio, zone ricche di argilla e solfati, minerali che indicano la passata presenza di acqua.

Come abbiamo visto anche i depositi di sale sono utili in tal senso. Ma la cosa importante è che il sale possiede la caratteristica di conservare il materiale organico. In laboratorio infatti molti batteri sono stati “rianimati” dopo essere stati conservati per milioni di anni in depositi di sale. La struttura “a lavandino” dei bacini marziani potrebbe inoltre aver permesso la concentrazione di materiale organico offrendo quindi le condizioni che potrebbero aver favorito la comparsa delle prime forme di vita marziane.

Fonte: Science

GateHouse – Most people would agree that I am something of a nerd. Most people would agree about that, because rarely has a fact made so regularly, aggressively apparent. Gravity is not proven as much as my relative nerdness; there’s more debate about the Earth’s revolving around the sun. At this point in the column I would normally make an extremely hilarious aside about the sheer level of brain-skill I possess regarding “Star Wars” and the discography of “Weird Al” Yankovic, but it occurs to me that I can probably just make those references and be done with it.

But being a nerd is not as easy as people think; it’s not just all fun and role-playing games. No, it requires you to keep up with a number of things, such as at least two fantasy sports leagues at all times, everything Steve Jobs is thinking and, of course, anything important that might be happening in space.

On the plus side, most of us have RSS readers that shoot stories and Google news alerts about these things to our smart phones, so it’s not like we have to spend a lot of time away from the Wii to do this. (Note to all non-nerds: Many important things happen in space, almost every day, although most of them are insignificant to you. So don’t sweat it. But if we hear of a killer asteroid on its way here, we’ll just text you).

Nerds have a fascination with space, and not always the weird “Star Trek”/We Are Not Alone sort of way, although, to be fair, it’s mostly in that way. Lest you think that’s some sort of jock-borne running gag or an unfair stereotype, allow me to assure you that the reigning IT kingpin at my office regularly holds debates about the level of awesomeness of “Deep Space Nine” versus the degree of fantasticness of “The Next Generation” with the guy in the cubicle next to me. If you could somehow capture and control the aggregate dork power of the resultant debate, I’m pretty sure we could eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. Frankly, a minute ago I was feeling pretty nerdy, but the more I think about these guys, I kinda think now I’m skewing jock.

Anyway, for whatever reason, I am drawn to stories about things happening in space, largely because most of the things happening on Earth involve missing children or war or Amy Winehouse. When I hear that NASA thinks there may be salt on Mars, I immediately put down my waffle and go check it out.

Indeed, according to Scientists, their probe droids and the midichlorians, the Mars Odyssey craft recently uncovered evidence that Mars’ Southern hemisphere is covered with a chloride mineral that may or may not be simple regular table salt. This is fantastic news, mostly because it means you can theoretically have a margarita on another planet in the reasonably near future. It also means I can use the phrase “chloride mineral” in a quote-fingers professional setting, meaning that my ninth-grade Earth science class is now not entirely useless.

The salt has been there for a while: Scientists think it was put there about four billion years ago, so it’s probably not very good for cooking. But here’s the crazy thing about salt: Aside from being apparently the only food ingredient that Arby’s knows about, it has many fantastic side properties. It’s a really good preservation material, meaning that scientists can theoretically use it to find places where life once might have existed in the past, such as in several long dried-up Martian lake areas, or in Nancy Grace’s brain. So it could very well turn out that the question of extra-terrestrial life will be partially answered by simple, delicious table salt. At least, that’s the current theory. Take it with a grain of, um, something.

Another Mars mystery – this time on the topic of whether or not there might have been salty lakes on the Red Planet in the past.

Here’s more on this story from BBC News:

Explanation: The layered and wind eroded deposits seen in this VIS image occur on the floor of Chandor Chasma.

This crater is located south of Agassiz Crater. It is likely that the polar freeze/thaw/frost cycle is responsible for unusual appearance of the ejecta region around the crater.