Posted on 07/22/2004 7:01:33 PM PDT 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.
Explanation: In this alluring time exposure, star trails arc across the night sky above Monterey Bay and the lights of Santa Cruz, California, USA. But since the exposure began around 3:01am PDT on July 15 it also records the long trail of a Delta II rocket lofting NASA's Aura spacecraft into Earth orbit. Watching from a vantage point about 200 miles north of the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site, photographer Rick Baldridge reports that the trail represents the first five minutes of the rocket's powered flight with the ignition of additional solid fuel strap-on motors visible after liftoff, near the beginning of the track. The rocket trail ends at first stage shutdown. Seen under the rocket's path, the two brightest star trails mark the alpha and beta stars of the high-flying constellation Grus. The Aura spacecraft's goal is a comprehensive study of planet Earth's nurturing atmosphere.
While rovers and orbiting spacecraft scour Mars searching for clues to its past, researchers have uncovered another piece of the red planet in the most inhospitable place on Earth -- Antarctica.
![]() Credit: NASA |
Discovery of this meteorite occurred during the second full field season of a cooperative effort funded by NASA and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to enhance recovery of rare meteorite types in Antarctica, in the hopes new martian samples would be found.
Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History involved in classification of Antarctic finds said the mineralogy, texture and the oxidized nature of the rock are unmistakably martian. The new specimen is the seventh recognized member of a group of martian meteorites called the nakhlites, named after the first known specimen that fell in Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911.
Like the other martian meteorites, MIL 03346 is a piece of the red planet that can be studied in detail in the laboratory, providing a critical "reality check" for use in interpreting the wealth of images and data being returned by the spacecraft currently exploring Mars. Following the existing protocols of the U.S. Antarctic meteorite program, scientists from around the world will be invited to request samples of the new specimen for their own detailed research.
Nakhlites are significant among the known martian meteorites for several reasons. Thought to have originated within thick lava flows that crystallized on Mars approximately 1.3 billion years ago, and sent to Earth by a meteorite impact about 11 million years ago, the nakhlites are among the older known martian meteorites. As a result they bear witness to significant segments of the volcanic and environmental history of Mars.
The U.S. Antarctic Meteorite program is a cooperative effort jointly supported by NSF, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution. Antarctic field work is supported by grants from NASA and NSF to Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; initial examination and curation of recovered Antarctic meteorites is supported by NASA at the astromaterials curation facilities at Johnson Space Center in Houston; and initial characterization and long-term curation of Antarctic meteorite samples is supported by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington.
Details concerning initial characterization of the specimen and sample availability are available through a special edition of the Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter, to be immediately released on the Web at: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/curator/antmet/amn/amn.htm.
The edition also will be mailed to researchers worldwide.
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Sweeet image! If One looks at the flight path approximately 45% (of the width of the picture) from the left (just after the path is coincident with the star trail) there are a couple of small blips slightly brighter than the path. Separation charges, maybe? Kind of a while after the apparent burnout of the major engines, but maybe?
One blip is a star trail right in the flight arc. There is a brightening in the first part of the launch--probably where the engines are throttled up after max-Q. The first stage path has a slightly greater bend after throttle up, but efficiency is close to maximum anyway. Delta and Atlas are the two sweetest big launchers on the planet.
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