Over the years the technology that offers information on weather prediction has improved, but we are still missing accurate measurements to help us predict how intense the storms are going to be. Now, ten years after Hurricane Katrina, NASA plans to deploy eight microsatellites in space to help forecast incoming hurricanes.
HOW WILL THEY TRACK A HURRICANE?
The microsatellites will orbit 317 miles above the Earth and will be positioned 35 degrees to the equator, measuring the oceans surface winds in the eye of a storm. The first test mission is going to launch in late 2016 from Florida and the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS), NASA’s weather prediction project, will be the first to study the interior of a hurricane. This mission is going to provide the space agency with more detailed information on the rapid intensification of the hurricanes.
The technique used in the past to measure wind speed over the oceans is called scatterometry for which a satellite sends a signal to the ground to measure its strength once reflected back. However, this technique is more expensive than the one being developed right now by the University of Michigan, because the microsatellites will only receive signals from GPS satellites already in orbit around Earth. Those signals will bounce off of ocean surfaces measuring the height of waves and the speed of the wind of a hurricane. The data will be shared with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) helping emergency managers make decisions during extreme weather conditions.
NASA HAS STARTED DEVELOPMENT
The eight satellites will extend the range on Earth that can be measured and they are going to be deployed separately around our planet. Also, the first microsatellite, which weighs about 64 pounds, began assembly on August 14th. The other seven are to follow in the next few weeks.
Their initial testing is scheduled for early 2016 and the authorities are hoping that they are going to be fully operational by 2017’s Atlantic hurricane season.
Perhaps what one thinks of when they hear the word Aurora is the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty from the animated film by Disney. But rest assured, this is not about princesses or fairy tales…at least not that kind of fairytale.
The Light Show on Earth
For the more scientifically-inclined individual, you probably think of the aurora that occurs on Earth; the Northern Lights. Indeed, the Northern Lights are a fantastic light show for everyone to enjoy, given the chance to travel up near the Arctic Circle.
Some Insight to the Auroras
If you are wondering how such spectacles occur, you only have to understand that the aurora light show is made up of energy and particles that are triggered during solar storms. The oxygen and nitrogen in our atmosphere then release the light we see in the Northern and Southern Lights.
However, ever curious about the nature of things, scientists began to wonder if seeing such light show phenomena could occur outside our solar system under observation. This is why recent news has been in a furor about the light show that is proving to be so much brighter than the one here on Earth, the size of Jupiter basically.
Our Understanding of the Universe has expanded a little more
A study that was published today in the Nature journal but received back in August 2014, nearly a year ago, talks about the findings. The object of interest, LSR J18535+3529, was suggested to be a brown dwarf based on the impressions of it being too heavy for a planet but too light for a star. The black sheep of the universe so to speak, as it’s not quite one or the other but is rather unique. However, that doesn’t stop brown dwarfs being awesome as one of the authors of the study, Gregg Hallinan of CalTech says when scientists discovered that the nonconformist brown dwarf emitted radio waves usually seen in stars.
Given what we already know about auroras on our planet, the team of scientists hazarded a guess and thought that perhaps brown dwarfs could also have their own light show. So given the difference of atmospheres between Earth and the dwarfs, the color of the light show changed, was redder, and had some ultraviolet and infrared lights as well.
Thus far, the furthest known auroras had come from Jupiter and were the brightest.
With this new research, the auroras from the brown dwarf are significantly massive and brighter given its middle occupancy between planet and star. More research will uncover more information about the light show phenomenon.
The scientific community loves a good debate, and perhaps one of the most on-again, off-again debates is about Pluto — is it a planet? On Friday, NASA’s planetary scientists jumped back in the debate after revealing that the dwarf planet is geologically active.
New Horizons Pals up with Pluto
In a press conference on Friday, new data from New Horizons indicated that Pluto is, in fact, quite a bit more complex than scientists originally believed.
“It’s very hard not to call an object with this level of complexity in its geology, and such complex seasons, a planet,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute.
According to the press conference, Pluto has an extensive, hazy atmosphere, and new glacier plains made up of nitrogen ice that are still actively carving away at Pluto’s surface. Scientists originally believed that Pluto was struck by an object so large that it blew bits of its mass away, which created its five moons. Oddly enough, there is no evidence of this impact since the dwarf planet’s surface is clean and almost perfectly spherical.
Making a Case Against Pluto
Back in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) delisted Pluto as a planet, ‘downgrading’ it to a dwarf planet. However, the original vote was so close that the new information being brought to light by New Horizons might force the IAU to reconsider.
In the original debate, the IAU had defined a planet as having three defining characteristics: it has to orbit around the sun, it must have a spherical shape, and it has to have “cleared the neighborhood” around its orbital plane.
Pluto has always been a little different from the rest of the gang, though. It’s smaller than our own moon, for instance, and it has an incredible elliptical orbit around the Sun, which is unique when compared to all of the other planets.
Unfortunately, it’s the third defining characteristic that puts a heavy damper on letting Pluto join the club again. The dwarf planet is located just in the inner edge of the Kuiper Belt, which is a collection of icy bodies right at the edge of the solar system. The more bodies discovered in the Kuiper Belt, the more the odds stack against the dwarf planet.
NASA Goes to Bat for Pluto
Stern has been poking holes in the IAU’s definition of a planet since 2006, so it’s no surprise that he’s using this new information to further cement his stance on Pluto’s planetship.
As Stern points out, most planets in the Solar System don’t have stable orbits, there are still plenty of asteroids cruising around Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. Last of all, Stern notes that less than five percent of the entire astronomical community voted to delist Pluto.
Despite Stern’s obvious bias, Pluto is getting plenty of support elsewhere, too. New Mexico and Illinois have both passed legislation which defines Pluto as a planet. There is also a lot of public support from people who just want to see the old band get back together.
Unfortunately for Pluto, its fate is tied to New Horizons. As it continues its mission to explore other bodies located in the Kuiper Belt, scientists will have a better understanding of Pluto’s neighbors and decide on a final classification.
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The New Horizons spacecraft is closing in on Pluto, and every day it sends fascinating new images of the dwarf planet that–as expected–are exceeding our expectations. The most recent photos show two distinct faces and a series of intriguing spots in full color. Earlier worries of lethal space debris have been reneged, much to the New Horizons’ NASA team’s relief.
IMAGE ORIENTATION
The newest images of Pluto and its moon Charon, captured by New Horizons’ Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and its Ralph Instrument, show the two bodies as they would appear to the naked eye, with half of Pluto imaged over its circular body (on the right). This would mean that what looks like the south pole is actually the equator.
INTRIGUING FEATURES TO NOTE
Around the equator, or what appears as the South Pole, are spots of about 300 miles (480 km) in diameter, with a surface area approximately the size of Missouri. These spots seem to have consistent size and spacing, and they trace a band across the dwarf planet. Their origin is still a mystery to scientists, but some answers may be revealed upon New Horizons’ arrival on July 14th.
“It’s a real puzzle – we don’t know what the spots are, and we can’t wait to find out,” Dr. Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announced from Boulder, Colorado. He is also New Horizons’ principal investigator.
CHARON IS MYSTERIOUS, TOO
Another puzzle lies in wait in the form of finding out why and how Pluto differs so much from its dark and gray moon Charon. When two bodies form in space, they are generally composed of the same material, and so are expected to appear as such.
BACK TO PLUTO
Pluto’s color has been confirmed by these images. It is a brown planet, whose color is the result of “radiation chemistry acting on the methane and nitrogen ices there,” said Dr. Stern. But a stranger surprise is yet to come, for both the Lorri and Ralph Instrument are going to search for clouds.
CLOUDS ON PLUTO?
Science team postdoc Kelsi Singer of SwRI said “we’re looking for clouds in our images using a number of techniques…if we find clouds, their presence will allow us to track the speeds and directions of Pluto’s winds.”
Some artist renderings of what Pluto may look like from low orbit can really take one aback–thin, wispy systems of white contrails all but rotating across the brown and yellow landscape. If this surreal possibility turns out to be true, it could indicate that Pluto has a much more complex weather system than we’d originally thought.
NEW HORIZONS ITINERARY UPDATES
NASA gave the all clear for the spacecraft to continue its approach to the Plutonian system yesterday, after several weeks of scanning for dust clouds, rings, hidden moons or other interplanetary hazards posing an imminent threat to the probe. As a last ditch effort, the team even considered the possibility of using the large high gain antenna dish (used to communicate with us, on Earth) as a physical shield against debris. Space dust is lethal because, regardless of size, a particle travelling at 30,800 miles per hour (49,600km/h) would turn anything we’ve built into swiss cheese.
The New Horizons team engaged a 23 second thruster burn to increase the probe’s speed, but overall “we’re breathing a collective sigh of relief knowing that the way appears to be clear,” remarked Jim Green, director of NASA’s planetary science division. The New Horizons team was worried they’d have to adopt a Safe Haven by Other Trajectory (SHBOT), a decision they needed to have made by this week, but it turned out to be an unnecessary precaution.
PRELIMINARY CONCLUSIONS
The New Horizons team partially expected to detect new moons or rings, but the lack of either was a “bit of a scientific surprise,” to Dr. Stern. “As a scientist I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t spot additional moons to study, but as a New Horizons team member I am much more relieved that we didn’t find something that could harm the spacecraft,” added John Spencer of SwRI, leader of the New Horizons hazard analysis team. The possibility of a faint ring does exist, but it would be extremely sparse and almost invisible to equipment.
The path is open and the stage is set for New Horizons to make history in the age of interplanetary exploration in twelve days’ time.
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