Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2004 February 9 
Posted on 02/08/2004 11:32:30 PM PST by petuniasevan
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2004 February 9
Explanation: A newly discovered comet may outshine most stars in the sky by May. Designated Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR), the comet was discovered in 2002 October by project LINEAR. Many reports already place the comet as brighter than magnitude 7, meaning that it can now be seen with binoculars. Reports also indicate the comet already has a visible tail nearly the length of a full Moon. Since predicting the future brightness of comets is a very tricky business, there remains the possibility that T7 might never become visible to the unaided eye. Alternatively, another comet, C/2002 Q4 (NEAT), may also reach naked eye visibility at nearly the same time, making 2004 April and May two of the busiest bright-comet months in centuries. Comet T7 can be seen on the above right on January 20, while an airplane trail is visible on the left.
The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit will leave its first rock subject late Sunday and begin the long journey toward an impact crater, a day later than planned after a self-imposed software hold. Meanwhile, Opportunity has commenced its examination of the rock outcropping at its landing site by taking amazing microscopic images.
 With its arm now stowed, Spirit snapped this image of Adirondack following the RAT'ing. Credit: NASA/JPL |
"On Spirit we intended to drive today but we weren't able to accomplish that. We did a lot of remote sensing," mission manager Jim Erickson told reporters in a teleconference. "One of the things we did accomplish was Pancam and Mini-TES of the RAT'ed part of the rock, the RAT hole."
In the upcoming workday, Sol 36, a single command will be sent to Spirit to clear the software hold placed against driving.
"It turned out back on Sol 18 when we had the original anomaly, one of the things the vehicle did was safe itself and it marked a flag that said 'don't drive until you really mean to.' It will know that you really mean to by resetting the flag. It looks like we missed that when we were getting everything back in order for driving on Spirit," Erickson said.
"Not a big a deal, but unfortunate."
Roughly 20 meters could be traversed on the first day of driving to a large impact crater nearby.
"We are intending to drive around the lander and beginning to drive to an area called Bonneville," Erickson said.
 The hole cut into Adirondack is clearly distinguished in Spirit's imagery. Credit: NASA/JPL |
"On Opportunity today we just finished pretty much a great day," Erickson said. "We were basically acquiring images in preparation for driving, and using the instrument arm. We got some magnificent images through the Microscopic Imager of one of the areas we are in right now -- both soil and the first part of the outcrop."
The latest highly detailed microscopic images show the bizarre sphere-like materials as were seen in other patches of soil that Opportunity has examined in recent days.
"They are showing up both in the soil and in the outcrop," Erickson said.
Other imagery taken by Opportunity appears to show the backshell and parachute resting on the Meridiani plains outside the crater.
"We'll have to wait and see if that's really what's in the image," Erickson said.
 A microscopic image of the rock outcrop taken by Opportunity on sol 15. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS Download a larger image here |
"One of the things that science wants to weigh in on is exactly how often we stop as we cruise down the outcrop, examine it, and begin to set the overall context for what we will then return and take specific observations.
"I think of this as just cruising past the buffet and coming back and sampling later," Erickson quipped.
"We are beginning to do the long-term study of this rock outcrop, which is the first one we've ever seen on Mars. We will be here a while, taking lots of data trying to understand the area that it is in as well as the rock itself."
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