Mars: An Ancient Ocean and Possibility of Life

Mars once had a vast northern ocean.

The news is out. Mars once had a vast northern ocean as deep as the Mediterranean Sea. Based on data from observations from earth using the world's largest telescopes, it's been established that the ancient water on Mars was the "heavy" deuterium kind. Most of this water was lost to space due to the thinning of the atmosphere and insufficient heat. Only 13% of the original water on Mars is left, locked in the north polar ice cap, .

The water evaporated and left pools like in Utopia Planitia.

It makes sense for future Mars missions to look for signs of ancient life in the north martian pole, although most of the "ice" there would be carbon dioxide. Another place of interest to look is Utopia Planitia (Nowhere Plain), where the Viking 2 lander came to rest in 1976. 

Utopia Planitia is reputably the largest impact basin on Mars and is likely one of the last places on the planet where water remained. It's like a giant pothole with puddle left behind by a rain storm. This "puddle" slowly shrank in time. In a desert on Earth, such a puddle would be teeming with life. As the puddle shrinks, so do the living environment, until what's left is a small area where dying critters clump together. 

The Viking lander had several life-detecting experiments onboard. One of them came up positive for signs of life. Since the results could not be convincingly verified, it was concluded to be a false-positive. It's possible that it was actually the descendants of ancient life that was detected by Viking 2, but considering the toxicity of the Martian soil (it contains oxidative perchlorate), and the unhindered stream of radiation from space, it's also likely not an actual sign of life. 

Life on Mars

Curiosity Lands on Mars - The JPL Good Luck Peanuts Worked

First photo from Curiosity form Mars, just after landing.

Mission control cheers.

After a tense 7 minutes going through the Martian atmosphere on August 5, 2012 (I watched it on NASA TV in my location on August 6, with the landing taking place just before 2pm), the Curiosity Mars Rover has touched down safely on the surface of Mars inside Gale Crater, a geological feature that may hold clues to possible ancient life on the red planet. Through the orbiting Opportunity satellite, Curiosity sent back to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), several pictures, with the first one taken just shortly after it touched down (top) with the dust still flying around it. The second picture also shows one of it's wheels. The third one of of the rover's shadow. (below).

JPL good luck peanuts.

Curiosity will now start it's two-year mission studying the exposed layers of Martian soil in the crater. It's powered by nuclear decay and is expected to outlast its warranty for as long as it does not encounter any unexpected accident. It may well reach the top of the peak in the middle of the crater and then explore the nearby areas. The traditional good luck peanuts of JPL (left) had done its job well.

Curiosity takes a photo of its shadow.

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Venus and Jupiter Together in Taurus on the Morning of July 5, 2012 - Philippines

Venus and Jupiter on the morning of July 5, 2012.

Venus and Jupiter magnified.

It's Independence Week in the US and there's been much talk about the co-called Thunder Moon (because of frequency of thunderstorms) on the 4th of July. Well, I didn't get to see that because of bad weather, but this morning, I looked out to the East and there was Venus and Jupiter together with Aldebaran in the constellation Taurus. Frankly, I've known these two planets have been there for a while, but it's only now I got the chance to take a look at the, soak them in and even take a few pictures with my iPad. Sure, the camera of the iPad 2 is wanting, but it can still take some good pictures of the sky, I must say. If you have a Retina iPad, then you can use that for better results. Anyway, enjoy these photos of Jupiter (the fainter object) and Venus (the brighter object).

Venus Transit of June 6, 2012: Eyepiece Projection Images

Venus Transit 2012 in post ingress. The Sun appears like an orange.

Venus in ingress.

Here are a few images of the transit of Venus (June 6, 2012). They are simple eyepiece projection images using a 3-inch classic Edmund Scientific reflector and a piece of cardboard. Times for ingress and egress were referenced from the Eclipses app for the iPhone/iPad. These images were taken using an iPad 2 from a Southern Tagalog city in the Philippines. Initial images during ingress were captured with foreground foliage partially blocking the sun, creating shadows. The inset shows Venus in visual ingress contact which occurred less than a minute after 6:30 am.

Note that these images are not representative of the actual appearance of the Sun's surface. The position of Venus of the Sun's disk is relative to the position of the camera. Most of the markings, apart from Venus and a few sunspots, are from shadows and the texture of the cardboard, which gives the Sun an artistic mottled appearance. The lines in the lower right corner of the following image are from the folds of the handheld cardboard onto where the images were projected. It's a simple set-up, but it does the job.

Venus Transit 2012. Projection on cardboard with shadows of foliage.

The transit of Venus of June 6, 2012 is the last one in the 21st century, with the previous transit occurring on June 8, 2004. The next transit of Venus will not happen until December, 2117 and the same month in 2125. So those who took the time to view this year's transit were lucky to have participated in an event that may occur only once in a lifetime.

Venus towards mid transit.

Attempts to use the Venus Transit app for the iPhone/iPad did not materialize due to the timer's failure to be available at the time of ingress. A message kept appearing that the counter will only be available during the actual transit (which was already happening). Mid transit was scheduled to occur at an altitude of 55 degrees and calculated by the Eclipses app to occur at 9:31:24 am in my current location.

Venus nears its exit.

Egress began some time before 1 pm. At this time, there were some discernible sunspots. As Venus continued its exit from the Sun's limb, it appeared as if a part of the Sun had been bitten off. At about the same time, NASA sent a tweet of an image of Venus exiting the Sun's face showing detailed features.

I didn't get the chance to take pictures of the final contact in egress since the iPad's battery ran out. But I had enough images of the event to use in this blog post, which was really my intention from the beginning. If you want to view or take images of the Sun using a similar method, just make sure you don't accidentally peer into the eyepiece. This method doesn't use any filter and the focused light of the Sun can burn your eye. You can also use some other paper. Try experimenting with white paper, even translucent paper. See what effects you can get.

Venus starts to exit the Sun in egress.

Venus exits the face of the Sun, which now looks bitten out of.

Venus bids farewell.

How the images of the Venus Transit 2012 were captured.

Eclipses iPhone/iPad App Lets You Find Solar and Lunar Eclipses

Ever heard of the expression, "There's an app for that"? Talking about eclipses, you'd ask if there's an app that will tell you about eclipses in the past, present and future. Well, there is such an app made by Olav Andrade. For those who are curious if there's an eclipse coming near you, you can download this app and see for yourself.

As of this posting, a partial lunar eclipse is scheduled to take place on June 4, and then there's the Venus Transit of 2012. Just by consulting the app, you'll be able to see if it is visible in your local area and what time it will start and end. You'll no longer need to wonder about the time of maximum eclipse. The app is fairly simple, but it does the job and will keep you informed about solar and lunar eclipses decades into the future. If you're into astronomy, or you have a kid interested in the science, the Eclipses app is a good one to get you up to speed on eclipses. The Eclipses app is available for free here.

NOTE: As of this writing, an error which pushes the current event to the next one prematurely exists in the app. Hopefully, it's already been updated to address the problem.

Download the Venus Transit iPhone/iPad App for June 6, 2012

The transit of Venus across the face of the Sun (begins at 06-06-06:12am-2012-varies with location) is the last for this century, which makes it a prominent event. I thought it may just be prominent enough to warrant an app for the iPhone (or iPad), so I did a search and there it was, an app especially made for the June 6, Venus transit!

The Venus Transit app of 2012 boasts of Timer, Simulation, Visibility, and Info tabs. If you click on Simulation,  you will be given Ingress and Egress to choose from. The labels are self-explanatory and tapping on one of them calls up a realistic animation of a magnified Venus either ingressing or egressing with the limb of Sun in the backgound. A timer keeps count and you are given instructions to hit the screen to log the time of contact. But that's only the simulation. The actual logging of contact times is not available until the transit itself, according to the app. Through the app, you can contribute to an experiment where amateur astronomer participants can send in their contact times of the transit.

If you tap the Visibility tab, you will get a map of your location, which also shows the dates and times for the ingress and egress (interior and exterior) of Venus in your area as well as the time for sunrise and sunset. The Info tab gives details of the developers, led by Astronomy Without Borders, with credit to Rikkert Koppes of DDQ Scientific & Educational Apps.

The Venus Transit iPhone App is available for free in the Apple App Store.

UPDATE: During the Venus Transit 2012, an error (possibly due to Internet connectivity or a glitch in the app itself) in the display of the counter prevented the app from being used in the experiment.

The MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network: Shooting Andromeda

The Andromeda Galaxy taken remotely; processed using color filters.

I recently tried out the MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network through the Observing With NASA (OWN) program. The system is a partnership between  Harvard, NASA, and the Smithsonian. For those who are not familiar with OWN, it's actually an astronomy education system wherein students, or practically anyone who can access the web and has an email address, can remotely use a telescope to take pictures of planets, asteroids, and deep sky objects and then use their free software to enhance the digital images to produce stunning visible light and full-color RGB stacked images.

I tried the system, and chose the Andromeda galaxy. The website will show you if an object is visible or not  where the robot telescopes are situated. Strangely, it also shows the Sun as available for observation even when deep sky objects were among the choices. I used multiple filters for me to be able to produce a color image of the galaxy. After you input your email and other details, you just go on to the Submit page and you're done! You will get your pictures through the email address you provided. Consequently, they will also be available in the site's archive for viewing and downloading by other users of the site.

I downloaded the program's special image processing software called MicroObservatory Image (ver. 2.2 at that time). It ran on a DOS prompt, but was decent and worked pretty well. I did encounter a problem with alignment of the red, green, and blue filtered images. It seems that if you align three color "plates" using the big stars to guide you, the smaller stars with one pixel per point will be noticeably misaligned, and vice versa. However, the misalignment of the bigger stars were not so obvious if I used the little stars to align with, which I did. The result is the image of the Andromeda galaxy, above. It's not perfect, but it's good enough to be proud of.

I took another available light image of the same galaxy the next day and here's the result:

The Andromeda Galaxy taken with OWN without using RGB color filters.

Access to the robotic telescopes are easy, although at one point, the Continue button apparently disappeared, preventing me from proceeding to the Submit page. I wasn't sure if it's just the computer I'm using or it's the site itself. But for astronomy students and enthusiasts who want to check out OWN, it's well worth the visit even if for just browsing the site. It has a couple of upcoming features which will allow students to search for new worlds beyond the solar system and much more. Now that's cool.

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Partial Solar Eclipse over the Philippines - May 21, 2012 - FIRST LOOK

Projection of partial solar eclipse-  May 21, 2012; Manila.

Partial solar eclipse of May 21, 2012.

Here's a first look at the partial solar eclipse over the hills of Antipolo, the Philippines (morning of May 21, 2012). Further up in the northern latitudes, it's actually the much touted "annular solar eclipse of the year." But since the country is beyond the annular path, I had to settle with a partial with only around 40% (my estimate) of the sun obscured by the moon. But even so, it's still a fantastic sight to behold. It's not a common event and it's something that kids will appreciate and look back to as grown ups.

Baby appreciates eclipse.

I only had a cell phone camera and an iPad 2 with me and didn't have a filter to reduce the sun's glare, but fortunately, I found a way to photograph the eclipse. Two holes in the galvanized sheet iron section of the wash area of the house provided two excellent projection images of the solar eclipse. I had fun taking pictures, which I must say is even more exciting than taking them directly using a filter or a telescope. These photographs were taken at around 6:13 with an iPad 2. Enjoy these "first look" images of the partial solar eclipse of 2012 (annular up north in Japan and parts of the Asian mainland)!

Double images of the partial solar eclipse - May 21, 2012

Source of one of the wall-projected images of the solar eclipse.

Partial solar eclipse (May 21, 2012) - iPad 2; no a filter.

All photos by alvinwriter.

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Asteroid YU55 Flyby (Nov. 8, 2011) - An Observing Dream for Astronomers

Asteroid 2005 YU55 radar image. (Wikipedia)

On Nov. 8, 2011, asteroid 2005 YU55 will fly by the earth. It will pass closer than the moon is to us, which is kind of scary for some people who think it might hit us. But really, the experts know whether any planetoid out there will be a danger to earth for as long as they've had ample time to study them. Since asteroid YU55 has been known for quite some time, the people on earth really have nothing to fear. According to JPL Goldstone scientist, Marina Brozovic, "We know exactly where it is going to be, and we don't have any chance of impact for the following hundred years." So alright, that's good to know. So it's our grandchildren that will have something to worry about in the future.

But asteroid YU55 isn't really about the end of the world. It's by far the greatest opportunity for astronomers, amateur and professional to be able to get their telescopes set up and see what an asteroid looks like in person and up close. Sure some of you reading this may have already observed a few famous asteroids like Vesta and Ceres, but how they appear in a small telescope would be nothing compared to YU55 as it passes by the earth. At 201,700 miles close and at 1,300 feet wide (about 4 football fields) and seemingly round (which is kind of uncommon for a small asteroid), and black, like charcoal - so it is taunting us in a way, like it's saying, "Come on now, this is a once in a lifetime chance to see a strange asteroid up close, so watch me!"

More details about the path and other things about asteroid YU55 are in The Watchers, and of course, Wikipedia.

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Religiously Observing Jupiter Pays Off for Christopher Go After Unknown Object Impacts

Christopher Go is an amateur astronomer in the Philippines. He's know for taking pictures of Jupiter and observing the change in color of a spot on Jupiter called Red Spot Jr. He  alerted astronomy authorities about it. Now, he's known worldwide. That was back in February of 2006. Ten years later, on June 3, 2010, it seems his religious observation of Jupiter had paid off again when he documented the impact of a large object on Jupiter on video. The event, which he confirmed with the footage, was actually observed by his friend, Australian astronomer, Anthony Wesley.

The object that hit Jupiter was unknown, but it hit in these coordinates: Jovian latitude minus 16.1°, and central meridian longitudes CM1: 300°, CM2: 33.8° and CM3: 210.4°."The impact produced a flash that was likely the result of the object exploding in the Jovian atmosphere. It is likely an asteroid. The photo and cropped detail shown here is from a still of the video made by Go of the event.

Wesley and Go (left) are now well-known Jupiter observers. Their success proves that it pays to keep an eye on Jupiter with your telescope. If you have the equipment to take photos and video, then you can capture events that professional astronomers may be too busy to notice. Jupiter presents a nice disk where anything can happen. Cloud patterns change and you never know if another object hits it. If you watch the video, you will see a faint flash (impact) first followed by a larger one (explosion). Here is the link to the video of Christopher Go of the Jupiter-impact event. It was posted on YouTube by kurtjmac: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AXSA9rZzrU.

You can follow Christopher Go's observations of Jupiter here: http://jupiter.cstoneind.com/

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New Cave Skylight Found on Pavonis Mons on Mars by 7th Graders

What could make the life of seventh grader more exciting and lead them more into the planetary sciences? The answer is the discovery of a cave on Mars! That's exactly what happened to 7th graders in California who were participating in the Mars Student Imaging Program at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University. This program lets students pose a question and to use a Mars orbiter to take pictures of the surface in order to find the answer.

The students were from Evergreen Middle School in Cottonwood, California. They were able to commission a Mars Orbiting Camera to search for lava tubes in the area of Pavonis Mons, a volcano where another cave was found in 2007 by geologist Glen Cushing, who suggested that the openings (left; previously-discovered cave) were skylights or holes in lava tubes created after a part of the roof collapsed. He estimated the hole to be over 600 feet wide and nearly 400 feet deep.

The students wanted to determine the likely places lava tubes could be found on Mars. The photographs of their chosen location did indeed show tubes. The cave was a bonus that made the news. The pictures were taken by the Mars Odyssey orbiter with its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) instrument. Dennis Mitchell, the teacher of the students, remarked that the program is one of the "greatest educational programs ever developed."

If you happen to have access to high-resolution photos of the surface of Mars, why don't you go over them? You may likely discover something new just like what these students did. You may not have access to the Mars Odyssey, but there's the chance that you will find something that's not noticed before.

NOTE: he images on the left relate to previous discoveries. The pictures are from NASA.

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The Sound of Outer Space Comes from Saturn

Saturn, a beautiful ringed orb hanging in the darkness of space. That's how you see it in a telescope. It speaks to you of mysteries in space. Have you ever wondered what Saturn would sound like if you can hear it? The Cassini spacecraft, which was sent to this wonderful ringed planet, has captured its radio emissions from energetic auroras which has been compressed and translated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) into sounds that we can hear and appreciate.

If you've ever wondered what space sounds like, then you can listen to the voice of Saturn. There are many other "voices" out there coming in from different levels of the electromagnetic spectrum, but Saturn's is one for the books because its sounds really does remind us of the vastness immensity of space. Note that 73 seconds of playback of the sounds of Saturn is really equivalent to 27 minutes in real time. The frequency had also been lowered to a range audible to the human ear.

Click here to listen to the eerie voice of Saturn.

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SkyXplore Begins SpaceDome Mobile Digital Planetarium Project in the Philippines

The Diliman Preparatory School in Quezon City in the Philippines has launched its SkyXplore project with the SpaceDome Mobile Digital Planetarium as the main attraction. The astronomy education program is headed by former Philippine Senator Nikki Coseteng and aims to bring astronomy closer to the Filipino student through the inflatable planetarium, creating new windows for education and opening doors to new careers in science and technology. As of this writing, only the Rizal Technological University offers degree courses in astronomy.

The planetarium will be taken to schools nationwide to promote astronomy and to educate students in the science. She will be aided by astronomy consultants like Frederick Gabriana and wife Rochelle (2nd picture from the top). Lecturers include Ramon Acevedo, resident astronomer of the Seven Suites Observatory Hotel in Antipolo City. The planetarium currently shows the sky as seen by different cultures (like the Inuit and Lakota) with the Western view taking precedence.

Astronomer Gabriana will soon by integrating Philippine constellations in the open source program used with the planetarium computer and projector. He will be using the research of Historian Dr. Dante Ambrosio of the University of the Philippines. It will be the first time that the sky as seen by indigenous peoples of the Philippines will be featured in a planetarium program. Aside from stars, planets, and constellations, the planetarium is also capable of taking the viewer on a travel through time and space. It's also for showing movies. Shown at left is Coseteng presenting the meteorite collection of the Gabrianas which was originally part of the Allen Yu space rock collection.

Nikki Coseteng launches SkyXplore -Scienceray

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