Heavens Above - Flybys, Marsquakes and Icy Craters

As a seasonal gift, NASA have made a downloadable  wrapping paper available - just the thing for that scale model of a Saturn V rocket...

Enough seasonal frivolity , what lurks in the Heavens Above ?
Like a stone skimming across the surface of a lake, the recent flyby of asteroid 2003 SD220 was a reminder of the vulnerability of our little home in space. It has already been pointed out that the one-mile long space-rock is a potential planet killer. Christened the 'hippo' asteroid by someone in JPL...I'm just surprised that it has not yet been likened to Oumuamua , or declared an alien scout ship...

Don't panic ! This was three years ago...recent flyby was only 1.8 million miles

...speaking of which, as we pass the shortest day of the year and head for Yuletide, we anticipate the New Years day encounter with ' Ultima Thule', the Kuiper belt object targeted by New Horizons since its Pluto flypast in 2015
As well as being the most distant flyby in our history, this is generating intrigue , due to anomalies regarding its lack of reflectivity - and (inevitably) the internet has arisen to the occasion with talk of it being an alien communications beacon, and other speculation born of fantastical fictions...
On the subject of distant neighbours in our solar system, a far flung contender has been discovered, with an orbit varying from 25 billion kilometers (from the sun) to a mere 3 billion, bringing it closer than Neptune. Not really big enough to be the ninth planet though...a place occupied by Pluto, IMO

This week saw the first firing of thrusters on the ESA/ Jaxa Beppi-Colombo mission to Mercury ...not a dramatic event  but a significant one, it allows tiny course corrections on its seven-year long journey ( the equivalent of being pulled by 250 ants, apparently) , so this is a very gentle journey, aiming to gather lots of science whilst approaching and orbiting Mercury in 2025.

Seismometer being placed on Mars       ESA

If you are impatient for science, don't forget that Insight just placed its Seismometer on Mars , and will begin relaying results of 'marsquakes' by the end of January 2019.

Korolev Crater   

The Mars Express Hi-Res Camera has recently imaged a crater filled with water ice, which is a permanent feature, a 'cold trap', with a depth of over a mile', and is comparable in volume to the Great Bear Lake in Canada (it says here...)

In a broader sense, though, the excitement of possible biological life on Mars is tempered by the Mars Trace Gas Orbiter, which has found no methane in the Mars atmosphere*...( personally, I think the subterranean martians must have a very advanced extractor fan - ahem )

* This appears to contradict earlier findings , so is not a definite statement


Here is a link to an animation detailing how to make a Dyson Sphere (well, you never know when you'll need to harness the power of the sun). As one commenter said, You Tube has come a long way from its early days of ' how-to-films' about making play-do...


On that note, have a very festive seasonal, and I'll see you on the other side !

TTFN


G

Clockwork Rovers, Missing Chunks, And The Pending Eclipse

To address the problem of electronics frying in the heat of the Venusian surface, JPL have created an entirely clockwork rover.
This instantly conjures images of a 'Steam-punk' contraption exploring a distant world.
Sadly, the actual design is purely functional, looking like a table with treads, and without the extra gears and embellishments associated with Steampunk (although another prototype appears to have 'spider-legs').
Still, the principle is there, and operating in temperatures of almost 500 degrees c, the risk of warped and damaged parts would be too great...

'Table on Treads' Venus rover mock-up      ©JPL

Since 1994, Venus has been neglected in favour of the exploration of Mars and the outer worlds of our solar system.
Even so, NASA have earmarked money for a mission which may be a joint effort with Russia, whose Venera13 was the last mission to send full colour images from the surface of Venus.
As Venus is close in size and mass to Earth, it may give us valuable information about climate and other mysteries ; one of which is why does it have such a thick atmosphere ?
The thick, hazy atmosphere is partly the reason for a probe being necessary - but it's also the reason for the surface being hotter than Mercury .
As we found with Magellan, it's impossible to clearly see the surface of Venus from above.
On the other hand, if it all looks like this, then we're not missing much...

Venus viewed by Venera 13 . Homely place...      

In Other News...

Let's just take a moment to remember that the plucky New Horizons probe is out there, travelling at over 30,000 mph towards a rendezvous with Kuiper Belt Object MU69.
The latest news tells us that MU69 may be multiple objects, or, rather oddly, just one with a chunk bitten out of it.
I'm conflating and exaggerating, of course, but how else do I make this update interesting ?

Meanwhile, back on Earth...

You may notice that I have barely mentioned the pending Stateside eclipse - not intentionally, although I am a little jealous - the last full eclipse I saw was in London long ago, in 1999...I'd like to say that I 'partied like it was 1999', but ironically, I was working underground at the time, and had to come to the surface just to watch the sky darken...

Eclipse 1999                           picture by Jurgens Mandeldorf

I'm pretty sure that this once in a lifetime total eclipse is well documented elsewhere, I'm sure there will be attempts to follow the progress coast -to -coast, but at only two minutes in each area, that would be a fast road trip !