For those unfamiliar with Map the Planets Project, we’ve been developing software to automate the process of analysing planetary images. We’ve been working on statistical methods for making quantitative measurements, such as estimating surface areas, and also predictions for how accurate such measurements can be computed. We’ve been getting very close to achieving our goals on simulated Martian images and we’re hoping to soon have more encouraging results from crater counting on the Moon. We created simulated Martian images using data from HiRISE, but we’ve needed help gathering images and ground-truths for experiments on lunar craters. This brings us to the first item on this post’s agenda, that of thanking all those who assisted in providing test crater data…

Students hard at work using ImageJ software to annotate sample images.

Thank you Moon Zoo users! We’d like to give a big thank you to all those citizen scientists who have dedicated many hours over recent months counting all the craters around the Apollo 17 landing site. These are the craters we’re using to test our software.

Thank you Moon Zoo team members, especially Roberto Bugiolacchi, Ian Crawford and Katie Joy who have provided us with raw data, lunar images and advice on what exactly planetary scientists would like to use automated systems for.

Undergraduates at the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences dedicated their afternoons to helping identify Apollo 17 site craters.

Thank you Manchester University undergraduates, Dayl Martin, Sean Corrigan, Alex Griffiths, Hazel Blake, Gosia Sliz, Joe Scaife, Pavel Kamenov and especially Tim Gregory, who spent their afternoons marking up every crater in sample regions which we’ll be using to calibrate our software. And thanks to Beth Marshall for baking the cookies.

Academic resources are stretched and everybody has a very busy schedule, so we’re hugely grateful for all the assistance we’ve received.

Moving on to the second item on this post’s agenda, we’re planning to do the following things between now and the end of the year…

Mars from Viking Orbiter. Image from NASA.

It’s PhD thesis writing time and this has highlighted the need to repeat a few Martian image experiments. There are still some unexplained effects that are making our Martian surface area measurements less accurate than we would have predicted. We need to test for these discrepancies and correct for them if possible. If we can fix these problems then it will become possible to automatically measure the surface area of all sorts of terrains, such as measuring how much of Mars is covered in dunes for example. Once the statistical theory and image encoding scheme is fully understood there could be hundreds of future applications for our methods. But for now, we just need to understand them well enough to write some key thesis chapters as a proof of concept. The plan is to have this work done by the end of June.

A template crater extracted by our software via images taken from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

From July we’re hoping to demonstrate our method’s practical utility by automatically generating quantitative size-frequency distributions (SFDs) for impact craters around the Apollo 17 landing site. An SFD plots the number of impact craters in an area against crater sizes. These are useful for estimating the absolute age of a surface, or placing neighbouring surfaces into relative chronological order. To do this we’ll be using a combination of Moon Zoo data and expert annotations. We will measure our success by comparing the accuracy of our crater counts to the accuracies predicted by our error theories, and also through comparison to expert SFDs and Moon Zoo users. This requires a good understanding of the types of noise present in data, as explained in a previous post.

We also have a couple of potential journal papers we’re trying to get published, and perhaps we’ll get to go to a conference or two. Latest news and developments can be found on our facebook page and technical notes can be found at www.tina-vision.net for those interested in the maths.

Comparison of size the Moon (left) and Mercury (right). Image: data used is LRO WAC (NASA/GSFC/ASU) of lunar nearside and MESSENGER (NASA/JHU-APL) of Mercury.

NASA has recently sent a new mission – called MESSENGER (an acronym of MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) – to find out more about Mercury. The mission has been in orbit since 2011 collecting a range of information about the planet’s morphology, topography, composition, mineralogy, magnetosphere and plasma environment. Spectacular new images of the planet’s surface have been sent back showing volcanic vent sites and strange features that are poorly understood known as ‘hollows’.

The MESSENGER mission is changing our understanding of Mercury, and it is an exciting time to be a planetary scientist as views of the planet’s formation and geological evolution are being discussed.

Looking to the future a new mission will be also going to study Mercury in even more detail. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) are sending a joint mission called BepiColumbo, which will launch in ~2015 and get to Mercury in ~2023. The experiments that will fly on the mission are nearly all built, and the UK (led by the University of Leicester) is contributing an instrument package called the Mercury Imaging X-ray Spectrometer (or MIXS for short). This experiment will map the chemistry of the surface of Mercury helping to map compositional variations in different geological features.

I joined other European planetary scientists last week to discuss preparations for investigating the surface and composition of Mercury with the BepiColumbo mission. The working group discussed the changing view of Mercury provided by MESSENGER, and how the different BepiColumbo science teams in Europe can collaborate and work together to maximise the science return from the future BepiColumbo mission. Even if the mission itself won’t get to Mercury for another ten years or so – forward planning and cooperation will be an important path to success.

Artist’s impression of BelpiColumbo mission. Image: ESA/DLR

Nitrogen has two stable isotopes: ¹⁴N and ¹⁵N. A wide variation of nitrogen isotopic compositions are observed in solar system materials, but the extent and origin of these variations are unknown. The ¹⁵N/¹⁴N ratio in samples returned by the Apollo missions appears to vary with age for samples from the lunar surface. The reasons for this remain a mystery. Was there a systematic change in the isotopic composition of solar wind nitrogen? Or are there non-solar sources of nitrogen on the surface of the Moon?

Genesis Solar Wind Concentrator. This photo was taken after the mission, note that one quadrant was damaged by the landing. Image: JPL/NASA

Researchers from the Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG), in Nancy, France have analysed parts of the Genesis Solar Wind Concentrator to determine the isotopic composition of solar wind nitrogen. The Concentrator is an electrostatic “mirror” that focused the solar wind ions onto a smaller area, increasing the concentration of light elements in the solar wind relative to background contamination.

The ¹⁵N/¹⁴N ratio measured in this concentrator is the lowest ever measured for any solar system objects –comparable to Jupiter’s ratio, but lower than that measured for the Earth, Moon or Mars.

Variations in isotopic composition of nitrogen observed in meteorites are consistent with a ¹⁵N-rich component hosted in organic material and a ¹⁵N-poor component derived from the presolar nebula.

Further details of this work can be found in A ¹⁵N-Poor Isotopic Composition for the Solar System As Shown by Genesis Solar Wind Samples, by B. Marty et al., published in Science in 2011 (Vol 332, pg 1533-1536).

Next time, in the final post in this series, we’ll look at the noble gases, in particular xenon (my favourite )

Previous: NASA’s Genesis Mission: Oxygen

Here in the lab we are pleased to report we now have one working spectrometer and one spectrometer we hope to have fixed by the time you’re reading this new round-up! Here’s to hoping we can get on with science next week (and hopefully end up with a few good articles about what we’re doing in the lab for you to read!). Anyway, what’s been happening this week? Find out below:

 It’s Earth, But Not As We Know It!

Now, people that keep up to date with the hunt for exoplanets will know that finding Earth like planets is on the top of the agenda. The most recent findings reported to Science magazine are the best candidates for being ‘Earth-like’ that have been found so far. The planets, named Kepler-62e and Kepler-62f, are found in the constellation Lyra some 1200 light years away from Earth and sit at a sufficient distance from the system’s star to be considered in the ‘Goldilocks Zone’. Read more about the discovery here: Kepler telescope spies ‘most Earth-like’ worlds to date.

Antares’ Flawless Ascent

The lift off from the Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, was a resounding success- with the 10 minute flight being reported as flawless. If everything goes to plan then the Antares rocket will begin supply deliveries to the ISS later this year. During the test, the rocket flew to an altitude of approximately 255 km before releasing a dummy payload- designed to simulate the Cygnus cargo ship which is due to be carried on the next launch of the rocket. Read more about the test flight as well as footage of the launch here: Orbital’s Antares rocket makes test flight. Or alternatively read the NASA release here: NASA partner Orbital Sciences test launches Antares rocket.

Making A Splash In Jupiter’s Atmosphere   

The upper atmosphere of our solar system’s largest planet, Jupiter, has been a long standing mystery to planetary scientists. It is unusually wet. Recently, ESA has been investigating why this is and has found an unexpected link with one of the most well known impact events, the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impact. This impact, or string of 21 impacts, is said to have imparted the water now observed to Jupiter’s atmosphere. Read more about how they came to this conclusion here: Herschel links Jupiter’s water to comet impact.

Dangers Of Debris Discussed 

Space debris is rapidly becoming a problem to the world as well as space flight in general. It has become so much of a concern that space agencies around the world are now looking into assessing and solving the problem. The quoted numbers of objects currently estimated to be in orbit include 170 million objects above 1mm in size and 670,000 objects larger than 1cm, all of which can be fatally damaging to spacecraft. Read more about the most recent conference to tackle this threat here: Focus on growing threat of space debris.

Over Turning Galaxy Evolution Theories With The Past

It was originally just a red smudge in images from the Herschel telescope, but now it is an example of an unbelievably fast rate of star formation. Almost 13 billion light years away, this galaxy appears to be producing stars at an astonishing rate of 2000 per year, whilst our own galaxy manages an average of 1 solar mass per year. Read about the full implications of the findings here: Star factory in the early universe challenges galaxy evolution theory. 

 Finally, I’d like to leave you with this stunning high definition composite image from Hubble and Herschel. It shows the Horsehead Nebula as a composite of the wavelengths of 70 microns (blue), 160 microns (green) and 250 microns (red). 

Image Credit: NASA

Also, check out the original full sized image here on the ESA website:

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Herschel/Herschel_and_Hubble_see_the_Horsehead_in_new_light

Oxygen isotopes were anlaysed in an unbroken single-crystam SiC target from the concentrator. Image: NASA/JPL

Oxygen has 3 stable isotopes: ¹⁶O, ¹⁷O and ¹⁸O. Different parts of the solar system have distinct oxygen compositions. Planetary materials vary in their relative abundance of ¹⁶O – oxygen isotope ratios are one criteria used in distinguishing different classes of meteorites.  The cause of these variations is unknown, and prior to the Genesis mission it was not possible to define the oxygen composition of the primordial solar system. But understanding the origins of these variations is vital to understanding the origins of the solar system.

A group of researchers from the Department of Earth and Space Science at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), USA developed a new instrument specifically for analysing Genesis samples: the MegaSIMS. This new instrument was necessary for a number of reasons:

• The concentration of solar wind oxygen implanted into the collector targets is low.
• The solar wind is implanted only just below the surface of the collector targets, and needs to be distinguished from surface contamination from atmospheric oxygen (oxygen make up about 20% of our atmosphere).
• Only a limited amount of sample material is available.

As the name might suggest the MegaSIMS is HUGE! It fills a whole room, just look at the photos on their website. But rumour has it that you have to have tiny hands to be able to reach inside to where the samples sit!

MegaSIMS lab at UCLA. Image: JPL/NASA

Their data show that the sun appears to be highly enriched in ¹⁶O relative to the Earth, Moon, Mars and bulk meteorites. But remember that the sun accounts for about 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System, and preserved the average isotopic composition of the solar system. Therefore we should turn this statement around to say that rocky materials in the inner solar system were enriched in ¹⁷O and ^18O relative to ¹⁶O. This probably occurred due to non-mass-dependent chemistry before the first planetesimals formed.

Further details of this work can be found in The Oxygen Isotopic Composition of the Sun Inferred from Captured Solar Wind, by K. D. McKeegan et al., published in Science in 2011 (Vol 332, pg 1528-1532).

Next time we’ll look at oxygen’s neighbour in the periodic table – nitrogen.

Previous: NASA’s Genesis Mission: The Science

Next: NASA’s Genesis Mission: Nitrogen

Cosmic Coincidence Against Cosmic Odds

Imagine, you are organizing a worldwide observation of a cosmic phenomenon and just as you start the observation, something quite spectacular happens. That’s exactly what happened when a programme of telescopes (ranging from radio to gamma-ray spectral ranges) gathered together to observe the Blazar Markarian 421. A ‘staggering’ flare-up has been observed coming from the supermassive black hole hosted in this Blazar. This is an unprecedented opportunity to observe these phenomena and it just happens to be happening at the same time as the American Physical Society meeting in Denver.  Read the full article here: Blazar Markarian 421′s flare-up is cosmic coincidence

Boldly Going Where No Man Has Gone Before

You may remember our report on the private sector attempts to send and elderly couple to Mars and back in 2018, well there’s now another organization moving in to take up that challenge. This mission however, has a very distinct difference. The move is permanent. The organization Mars One has some pretty cutting edge technology on their side but ultimately this mission will rely on the ingenuity and resolve of the crews sent to Mars. Read more about it here: Applicants wanted for a one way ticket to Mars. Or read the original article we reported on here: US private sector hopes to send older couple to Mars.  

SOFIA Provides A Surprise

Using the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, researchers at NASA have captured a glimpse of a massive star forming within a dense cloud of dust and gas. The surprise comes with how ‘normal’ this star formation is compared to smaller stars. It was once expected to be a much more chaotic process than the smaller stars display but these observations refute that hypothesis. Read more about it here: SOFIA Observations Reveal A Surprise In Massive Star Formation.

Briefings And Updates

Just a brief mention of the three events happening later today; although I’m sure if you haven’t read this by the time the event has happened, there will be copies of it all over the internet. The first is the media briefing to discuss the Kepler mission’s planetary discoveries at 2 pm EDT and the second is the MSL Curiosity Rover lecture at 6:30 BST. Finally, Lori Garver (NASA’s Deputy Administrator) held a Q&A session on Twitter and Reddit yesterday. Be sure to check out the many interesting questions and her fascinating responses.

Watching The Skies Closer Than Ever Before

The latest technology designed to help the detection and tracking of Near Earth Objects (NEOs) has passed a critical testing stage in its development. The sensor, called NEOCam is said to be the ‘cornerstone instrument’ for a new space based telescope designed to detect and track asteroids that may be of a threat to Earth. Read more about it here: NASA-funded asteroid tracking sensor passes key test.

Solar Winds SLAM-ing Earth All The Time

Earth’s magnetosphere protects us from all sorts of dangerous radiation that would have scoured life from the surface of the Earth long ago without this field in place. NASA is continually sending spacecraft up to investigate the changes in how energetic particles are affected when moving through this barrier. This article discusses a strange phenomenon, abbreviated to SLAMS, whereby short large amplitude magnetic structures were observed in the data collected by the NASA Wind spacecraft between 1998 and 2002. Read more about these phenomena here: NASA’s wind mission encounters ‘SLAMS’ waves.

Aborted Antares

Originally I didn’t think I would be posting this in time to alert you all to the upcoming Antares rocket launch. However, due to a premature uncoupling of the second stage umbilical, the launch has been delayed. New estimates predict a launch no earlier than Friday 19^th April at 5:00 pm EDT. Live coverage will commence at 4:30 pm, be sure to tune in and watch the launch! For more details: Antares launch reschedule

And finally, I leave you with an extreme UV image of the Sun- which gave out its largest recorded solar flare of 2013 last week. Not to mention, it looks like a pretty impressive picture!

Taken on the 11th of April, this image shows the Sun giving out its largest solar flare of 2013 so far. This image compiles false colour images from the extreme UV range. Image Credit: NASA

You’re Going To Do What?!

Research often involves some fairly crazy ideas but I have never heard anything quite as crazy as the latest proposal to come from NASA. They are hoping to send a mission to draw an asteroid into orbit around Earth. It sounds like something straight out of a Sci-Fi movie but I assure you, this is a real mission and if it is pulled off successfully then it will provide a wealth of information and samples for the planetary science community. Read more about the proposal, and see the dramatic media release about this mission here: NASA’s Asteroid Initiative Benefits From Rich History

Curiosity Gets Noble

The results for the Martian atmosphere study carried out by the SAM instrument on board are now out, or at least the Argon data has been reported on! This is still an evolving picture but it is definitely proving interesting for the noble gas community. The suggestion is that due to the lack of a magnetic field protecting Mars from early on in its life, the lighter isotopes of Argon have been preferentially stripped away by the solar winds. Read more here: Curiosity Rover Traces Loss Of Martian Air.

Or the NASA Report here: Remaining Martian Atmosphere Still Dynamic

LARS Looks Closer To Home

ESA and NASA have recently turned their attention to looking at galaxies closer to home and their Lyman Alpha emissions (along with spectrometry and imaging) in an attempt to further understand what happens in star forming regions. Read more about the science here: Hubble Sees Light and Dust in a Nearby Starburst Galaxy

Navigating The Stars

When I first read this article I have to confess, my mind wandered straight to Star Trek. This is one of many methods currently being developed for the use in navigation of the stars. This multipurpose mission has drawn support from across NASA as well as external sources and is planned for deployment in 2017. Read more about it here: NASA Taps the Power of Zombie Stars in Two-in-One Instrument

Spearheading Glacial Study

This article is one for our earth science viewers! The BBC reports on a cutting edge method of accessing and analyzing the harder to reach places in the world. Twenty-five ballistic “Javelins” packed with analytical instruments have been deployed in Pine Island Glacier to help monitor the conditions and track its movement. The method of deployment is phenomenal and I thoroughly recommend reading this article! I can’t help but wonder, from a planetary scientist point of view, how applicable this technology would be to large scale planetary exploration missions? Read more about it here: Science “Javelins” Spear Pine Island Glacier

I’d like to finish this post by sharing the image below with you all. It shows America’s Eastern Seaboard as seen at night from the ISS. It’s images like this that, for me, exemplify the NASA slogan “Never Stop Exploring”. I hope you enjoy it!

This image, taken 30th expedition to the ISS is in tribute to both the first man in space Yuri Gagarin (12th April 1961) and the first Space Shuttle launch (12th April 1981). Taken on the 12th April 2013.
Image: NASA

Artist Rendering of the Genesis Spacecraft in Collection Phase: Earth and Sun in Background (courtesy of NASA)

Last year I wrote a few posts about NASA’s Genesis mission, explaining some of the background to the mission and why we need to know more about the original composition of the material our Solar System formed from. I wrote about the mission itself, and the aftermath of the “non-ideal” return of the sample capsule.

It is now time for me to follow-up those posts with the results of some of the analyses of the Genesis samples. Yeah I should have done this a long time ago, but there’s been so much to do in the lab I never quite got round to it till now…

Before the mission, a list of scientific objectives and priorities was published¹. The highest priority objectives are analysis of:

1. Oxygen isotope ratios
2. Nitrogen isotope ratios
3. Elemental and isotopic ratios of noble gases (helium, neon, argon, krypton and xenon)

These top 3 priorities are followed by a long list of further objectives which cover analysing the rest of the elements from lithium to uranium.

The low concentrations of solar wind implanted into the collector targets (10⁴ to 10¹³ atoms per cm²) mean the analyses are challenging. The very best and most sensitive analytical techniques and instruments must be used to make measurements with the required precision. And a wide range of instruments and techniques are necessary to analyse all the elements.

“After” – Fragments of the collector arrays damaged by the impact of the landing. (Image courtesy of NASA)

Obviously no one research group would have the ability or expertise to analyse all the different elements. The Genesis Science Team is made up of planetary science researchers from all around the world. Each group is responsible for analysing a different element or group of elements, depending on their expertise.

Oxygen isotope ratios have been measured by a group of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the USA. They built a unique mass spectrometer, known as the MegaSIMS, specifically for analysing the Genesis samples.

Nitrogen isotope ratios have been measured by a group from Nancy University in France.

A number of different groups have been working on the noble gases. We have determined the concentration and isotope composition of xenon. Research groups ETH in Zürich, Switzerland and Washington University in St Louis, USA have also been working on the noble gases, looking at both elemental and isotopic ratios.

It would be too much to write about all the types of analysis used and the findings in this article, so over the next few weeks I’ll take those 3 highest priority objectives in turn and tell you about oxygen, nitrogen and noble gas analyses. So come back soon, and we’ll start with oxygen…

1. Burnett, D.S. et al. (2003) The Genesis Discovery Mission: Return of Solar Matter to Earth, Space Science Reviews, 105, 509-534

Previous: A Jigsaw Puzzle from Space!

Next: NASA’s Genesis Mission: Oxygen

Making A Mountain Out Of A Mole Hill

There’s been a lot of hype about the AMS instrument on the ISS this week, the majority of which is somewhat unwarranted, nonetheless, we’re reporting on the continued work by this instrument and the teams working on it.

Since its launch in 2011, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) has been converting the relatively brief amount of data we had on dark matter, antimatter and a whole range of other as-of-yet unknown particles, into a mountain of data. With the ability to continuously collect data from the ISS’s vantage point it has proven its worth most recently by alluding to having found dark matter. There are a few different articles on the findings, check out the BBC report on the matter here: Have scientists found dark matter?

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/ams_how_it_works.html

It’s Life, But Not As We Know It!

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been running experiments that simulate the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan. Specifically they’ve been looking at organic molecules and the potential of supporting life in a pocket of the atmosphere detected on Titan. Read more about the findings here: NASA team investigates complex chemistry at Titan

Curiosity Out Of Sight

Recently Curiosity has been out of contact with its controllers at NASA JPL due to the position of the Sun between the Earth and Mars, a situation called conjunction. This has called for some pretty impressive scheduling of commands as well as the use of many, if not all of the orbiters around Mars currently to store the valuable data collected before it can be transmitted back to Earth. It’s been a phenomenal undertaking and it appears to have paid off- The Rover kept carrying out science while it was out of contact but was not moved, for obvious reasons!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZw74PKoajU&list=PL56421C9A51D1F427

It’s a short update this week, mainly due to the relatively few news articles that have been published following LPSC. We suspect all the really interesting stuff was held back for the conference! Hopefully we’ll have more for you next week! I leave you with this image from the Hubble Telescope:

A recent and rather amusing picture from Hubble, see if you can find the Space Invader… (Image: NASA)

And so on with this week’s new…

Understanding the ‘lunar cataclysm’ with Vesta

Howardites, eucrites and diogenites (HED) are a class of meteorites connected to a giant asteroid called Vesta and have now been found to share an interesting history with the Moon. So naturally studying the ‘lunar cataclysm’ you would think to look no further than lunar rocks…but teams of scientist at the NASA Lunar Science Institute have found that Vesta and the Moon have more in common than we think! Both appear to have been bombarded, in the early years of the Solar System, by the same population of projectiles. Great news considering this adds around three times more samples to analyse. Read more here: NASA-Supported Lunar Scientists Find New Link In Solar-System-Wide Impact Bombardment.

Six hour space run

Usually it takes around 2 days for a journey to the International Space Station (ISS), but yesterday the 3 man crew of the Soyuz space capsule managed it in less than six hours. With some amazing manoeuvres the team cut out a huge amount of time to reach their destination. Read on to find out more about their research: Soyuz spacecraft docks at ISS after just six hours.

Dinosaur Killer!!

The asteroid that is believed to have ended the reign of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago might not actually be an asteroid. New studies looking at the extra-terrestrial elements deposited in the impact and the physical properties of the Chicxulub crater have pointed towards a comet origin of the impactor. Read more here: Dinosaur-killing space rock ‘was a comet’

‘Vintage’ Solar System

Like our own Moon, Saturn’s rings and moons have been found to date back to more than 4 billion years ago, right around the start of our Solar System. Studying these ‘vintage goods’ of Saturn can help us understand the nature of the entire Solar System. The Cassini-Huygens mission launched in 1997 and is still going strong. Read more about the latest analysis here: Saturn is Like an Antiques Shop, Cassini Suggests.

Hunting Stars with Herschel

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel space observatory is designed to look into some of the most coldest and distant objects in the universe. And has recently been observing regions of vast star-forming clouds such as the W3, an enormous stellar nursery about 6200 light years away. Studying this region has lead to progress in understanding the major processes occurring when massive stars are born. Read on for more information: Hunting High-Mass Stars with Herschel.

Carrying on with this week’s big finding, I figured I’d give the picture of the week to a Herschel image of the W3 cloud. The colour are awesome, and to think its 6200 light years away and still in our Galaxy’s main spiral arm is mind blowing!!!

The vast massive star-forming region known as W3, 6200 light years away from Earth in the Milky Ways Galaxy’s main spiral arm. (IMAGE:ESA)