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Space News Update — May 20, 2014 —

Contents

In the News

Story 1:

Construction to Begin on NASA Mars Lander Scheduled to Launch in 2016

Story 2:

Venus Express Gets Ready to Take the Plunge

Story 3:

New Meteor Shower from Comet Could Dazzle Stargazers This Week

Departments

The Night Sky

ISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV Highlights

Space Calendar

Food for Thought

Space Image of the Week

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1. Construction to Begin on NASA Mars Lander Scheduled to Launch in 2016

NASA’s Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission will pierce

beneath the Martian surface to study its interior. Launch is scheduled for March 2016.Image Credit: NASA

NASA and its international partners now have the go-ahead to begin construction on a new Mars lander after it

completed a successful Mission Critical Design Review on Friday.

NASA’s Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission will

pierce beneath the Martian surface to study its interior. The mission will investigate how Earth-like planets

formed and developed their layered inner structure of core, mantle and crust, and will collect information

about those interior zones using instruments never before used on Mars.

InSight will launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, on the central California coast near Lompoc, in March

2016. This will be the first interplanetary mission ever to launch from California. The mission will help inform

the agency’s goal of sending a human mission to Mars in the 2030s.

InSight team leaders presented mission-design results last week to a NASA review board, which approved

advancing to the next stage of preparation.

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“Our partners across the globe have made significant progress in getting to this point and are fully prepared to

deliver their hardware to system integration starting this November, which is the next major milestone for the

project," said Tom Hoffman, InSight Project Manager of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena,

California. "We now move from doing the design and analysis to building and testing the hardware and

software that will get us to Mars and collect the science that we need to achieve mission success."

To investigate the planet's interior, the stationary lander will carry a robotic arm that will deploy surface and

burrowing instruments contributed by France and Germany. The national space agencies of France and

Germany -- Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)

-- are partnering with NASA by providing InSight's two main science instruments.

The Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) will be built by CNES in partnership with DLR and the

space agencies of Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It will measure waves of ground motion carried

through the interior of the planet, from "marsquakes" and meteor impacts. The Heat Flow and Physical

Properties Package, from DLR, will measure heat coming toward the surface from the planet's interior.

"Mars actually offers an advantage over Earth itself for understanding how habitable planetary surfaces can

form," said Bruce Banerdt, InSight Principal Investigator from JPL. "Both planets underwent the same early

processes. But Mars, being smaller, cooled faster and became less active while Earth kept churning. So Mars

better preserves the evidence about the early stages of rocky planets' development."

The three-legged lander will go to a site near the Martian equator and provide information for a planned

mission length of 720 days -- about two years. InSight adapts a design from the successful NASA Phoenix

Mars Lander, which examined ice and soil on far-northern Mars in 2008.

"We will incorporate many features from our Phoenix spacecraft into InSight, but the differences between the

missions require some differences in the InSight spacecraft," said InSight Program Manager Stu Spath of

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Denver, Colorado. "For example, the InSight mission duration is

630 days longer than Phoenix, which means the lander will have to endure a wider range of environmental

conditions on the surface."

Guided by images of the surroundings taken by the lander, InSight's robotic arm will place the seismometer on

the surface and then place a protective covering over it to minimize effects of wind and temperature on the

sensitive instrument. The arm will also put the heat-flow probe in position to hammer itself into the ground to

a depth of 3 to 5 yards (2.7 to 4 1/2 meters).

Another experiment will use the radio link between InSight and NASA's Deep Space Network antennas on

Earth to precisely measure a wobble in Mars' rotation that could reveal whether Mars has a molten or solid

core. Wind and temperature sensors from Spain's Centro de Astrobiologia and a pressure sensor will monitor

weather at the landing site, and a magnetometer will measure magnetic disturbances caused by the Martian

ionosphere.

InSight's international science team is made up of researchers from Austria, Belgium, Canada, France,

Germany, Japan, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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2. Venus Express Gets Ready to Take the Plunge

Venus Express aero-braking Source: ESA

After eight years in orbit, ESA’s Venus Express has completed routine science observations and is preparing for

a daring plunge into the planet’s hostile atmosphere.

Venus Express was launched on a Soyuz–Fregat from the Russian Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 9

November 2005, and arrived at Venus on 11 April 2006.

It has been orbiting Venus in an elliptical 24-hour loop that takes it from a distant 66 000 km over the south

pole – affording incredible global views – to an altitude of around 250 km above the surface at the north pole,

close to the top of the planet’s atmosphere.

With a suite of seven instruments, the spacecraft has provided a comprehensive study of the ionosphere,

atmosphere and surface of Venus.

“Venus Express has taught us just how variable the planet is on all timescales and, furthermore, has given us

clues as to how it might have changed since its formation 4.6 billion years ago,” says Håkan Svedhem, ESA’s

project scientist.

Venus has a surface temperature of over 450°C, far hotter than a normal kitchen oven, and an extremely

dense, choking mixture of noxious gases for an atmosphere. But from the mission’s infrared survey of the

chemical composition of the rocky surface, we have learned that Venus might have once had a plate tectonics

system like Earth, and even an ocean of water.

Just like Earth, Venus is losing parts of its upper atmosphere to space and Venus Express measured twice as

many hydrogen atoms escaping out of the atmosphere than oxygen. Because water is made of two hydrogen

atoms and one oxygen atom, the observed escape indicates that water is being broken up in the atmosphere.

Today, the total amount of water on Earth is 100 000 times that on Venus. But because the two planets are

about the same size and formed at the same time, both may have had similar amounts of the precious liquid

in their early years.

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Meanwhile, the spacecraft’s cameras have tracked thousands of features in the cloud tops some 70 km above

the planet’s surface, including an enormous swirling vortex at the planet’s south pole that shares similarities

with hurricanes on Earth. The spacecraft also recorded bursts of lightning – identified by their electromagnetic

signature – generated in clouds of sulphuric acid.

Studies of the planet’s ‘super-rotating’ atmosphere – it whips around the planet in just four Earth-days, much

faster than the 243 days the planet takes to complete one rotation about its axis – also turned up some

intriguing surprises. In one study, average wind speeds were found to have increased from roughly 300 km/h

to 400 km/h over a period of six Earth years.

Conversely, a separate study found that the rotation of the planet had slowed by 6.5 minutes since NASA’s

Magellan, which completed its 5-year mission at Venus 20 years ago, measured it.

However, it remains unknown if there is a relationship between the increasing wind speeds and the slowing

rotation.

Magellan’s radar survey of the planet revealed that its surface was heavily altered in the past by a large

number of volcanoes. But Venus Express has provided tantalising hints that the planet may well be still

geologically active today. One study found numerous lava flows that must have been created no more than

2.5 million years ago, just yesterday on geological timescales, and perhaps much more recently.

Indeed, measurements of sulphur dioxide in the upper atmosphere have shown large variations over the

course of the mission. Although peculiarities in the atmospheric circulation may produce a similar result, it is

the most convincing argument to date of present-day active volcanism.

Now, after eight years in orbit, the fuel supplies necessary to maintain the elliptical orbit are running low and

will soon be exhausted. Thus, routine science operations concluded this week, and the spacecraft is being

prepared for one final mission: to make a controlled plunge deeper into the atmosphere than ever before

attempted.

“We have performed previous short ‘aero-drag’ campaigns where we’ve skimmed the thin upper layers of the

atmosphere at about 165 km, but we want to go deeper, perhaps as deep as 130 km, maybe even lower,”

says Patrick Martin, Venus Express mission manager.

“It is only by carrying out daring operations like these that we can gain new insights, not only about usually

inaccessible regions of the planet’s atmosphere, but also how the spacecraft and its components respond to

such a hostile environment.”

This ‘experimental aerobraking’ phase is planned for 18 June – 11 July, during which time some limited science

measurements with the spacecraft’s magnetic field, solar wind and atom analysing instruments will be

possible. Also, temperature and pressure sensors will record the conditions that the spacecraft is experiencing.

“The campaign also provides the opportunity to develop and practise the critical operations techniques

required for aerobraking, an experience that will be precious for the preparation of future planetary missions

that may require it operationally,” says Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations.

It is possible that the remaining fuel in Venus Express will be exhausted during this phase or that the

spacecraft does not survive these risky operations. But if the spacecraft is still healthy afterwards, its orbit will

be raised again and limited operations will continue for several more months, fuel permitting.

However, by the end of the year, it is likely that Venus Express will have made its final descent into the

atmosphere of the planet, bringing a fantastic scientific endeavour to an end.

Source: ESA Return to Contents

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3. New Meteor Shower from Comet Could Dazzle Stargazers This Week

This sky map from a NASA video shows the location of the new "Camelopardid" meteor shower spawned by the Comet

209P/LINEAR, which will make its first appearance in Earth's night sky overnight on May 23 and 24, 2014. The meteor

shower will appear to radiate out from a point near the constellation Camelopardalis.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A new meteor shower spawned by a comet is due to light up the sky this week, with some forecasters

predicting up to 200 "shooting stars" per hour — a potentially spectacular opening act for the meteor display.

In February 2004, the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) team discovered Comet 209P/LINEAR.

The relatively dim comet crosses Earth's orbit once every five years in its journey around the sun.

Two years ago, in 2012 meteor experts Esko Lyytinen of Finland and Peter Jenniskens at NASA Ames Research

Center determined that Earth would pass through debris from the comet this year. Material shed from the

comet in the 1800s would encounter Earth on May 24, 2014.

If it performs as expected, the never-before-seen Camelopardalid meteor shower is due to peak overnight on

May 23 and 24 as the Earth passes through a debris stream left by the Comet 209P/LINEAR nearly 200 years

ago. The new meteor display could rival the brilliance of the annual Perseid meteor shower that graces the

night sky each August.

The prospect of a brand-new meteor shower has scientists understandably excited. "There could be a new

meteor shower, and I want to see it with my own eyes," said NASA meteor expert Bill Cooke, head of the

Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., in a statement.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth passes through clouds of dust and gas left behind from comets as the

planet orbits the sun. This gas and dust falls into Earth's atmosphere, where it burns up on its downward

journey creating a meteor display. The amount of debris in space determines how much of a show the shower

will present to observers.

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While experts agree that an encounter is imminent, no one is certain how much material lies waiting in space

to create the new meteor shower. It depends on how active the faint comet was when it crossed Earth's path.

"We have no idea of what the comet was doing in the 1800s," Cooke said. "There could be a great meteor

shower — or a complete dud."

The best time to watch is between 6 and 8 Universal Time on May 24, which translates to between 2 a.m. and

4 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, when modelers say Earth is most likely to encounter the debris. North

Americans will receive the best show because the peak occurs at night in that region, when the apparent

source of the streams of gas will lie high in the sky.

"We expect these meteors to radiate from a point in Camelopardalis, also known as 'the giraffe,' a faint

constellation near the North Star," Cooke said. "It will be up all night long for anyone who wishes to watch

throughout the night."

Although the forecast calls for a two-hour encounter, avid watchers may wish to extend their viewing time to

allow for potential surprises from the new meteor shower. Outbursts could occur in the hours before or after

the event.

If the anticipated meteor shower fizzles out, observers will still be able to observe the tight conjunction of the

crescent moon and Venus, which will rise together just ahead of the sun.

"That's a nice way to start the day, meteors or not," Cooke said.

Source: Space.com Return to Contents

___________________________________________________

NASA's prolific Kepler spacecraft is back in action,

a year after being sidelined by an equipment

failure.

The space agency has approved a new mission

called K2 for Kepler. The telescope's original

exoplanet hunt was derailed in May 2013 when the

second of the spacecraft's four orientation-

maintaining reaction wheels failed, robbing it of its

precision pointing ability.

"The approval provides two years of funding for

the K2 mission to continue exoplanet discovery, and introduces new scientific observation

opportunities to observe notable star clusters, young and old stars, active galaxies, and

supernovae," Kepler Project Manager Charlie

Sobeck, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California,

At left is an artistic rendering of the K2 mission,

the two-wheel operation mode of the Kepler

spacecraft observing in the ecliptic. K2 will observe 4-5 target fields annually along the ecliptic plane,

the orbital path of planets in our solar system also known as the zodiac, for approximately 75-day

campaigns. Credit: NASA Ames/W. Stenzel

NASA's Exoplanet-Hunting Kepler Space

Telescope Gets New Mission

Source: Space.com

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The Night Sky

Source: Sky and Telescope Return to Contents

Tuesday, May 20 As the stars come out, Saturn in the southeast, Vega

in the northeast, Capella in the northwest, and

Procyon in the west-southwest are all at about the

same altitude (as seen from about 40° north

latitude).

Wednesday, May 21

The western twilight Arch of Spring is sinking, but

you can still catch this big landmark when the stars

come out. Jupiter in the west lies within it. Pollux

and Castor, above Jupiter, are lined up roughly

horizontally; they're the Arch's top. Look far to their

lower left for Procyon, and farther to their lower

right for Menkalinen and then bright Capella. Jupiter

is moving closer to the Arch's upper-left side.

Thursday, May 22

As twilight fades, spot Mercury low in the west-

northwest. It's about 2½ fists to the lower right of

bright Jupiter. This evening Mercury is between the

horn-tips of Taurus: Beta Tauri (El Nath) to its upper

right, and Zeta Tauri to its lower left. Binoculars will

help.

Friday, May 23

New meteor shower? A possible strong meteor

shower may arrive in the early-morning hours of

Saturday the 24th, timed for North America

(perhaps peaking around 3 a.m. EDT, midnight

PDT). For just a few hours we'll pass through the

predicted debris trail of Comet 209P/LINEAR, which

is making an unusually close flyby of Earth. There's

even a (slim) possibility that the shower could

approach "meteor storm" proportions. The comet

itself is closest on May 29th, but it's very small and

faint and may reach 11th magnitude at best.

As dawn brightens on Saturday morning the 24th,

look for Venus well to the lower left of the waning

crescent Moon, as shown above.

Look left of Jupiter for Procyon, far below Procyon for bright Sirius, to the right of Sirius and somewhat lower for Rigel in Orion's foot, then above Rigel for Betelgeuse, and back to Jupiter.

Wednesday, April 23

As soon as twilight fades out, look moderately low in the west-northwest (far below Capella) for

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ISS Sighting Opportunities

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone)

May 20, Tuesday

7 - 8 a.m. - Live Interviews with Expedition 39 Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA - JSC (All

Channels)

11:10 a.m. - ISS Expedition 40 In-Flight Interview with CNN’s Original Video Division - JSC (All Channels)

11:30 a.m. - Space Station Live - JSC (All Channels)

May 21, Wednesday

1 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 40/41 Crew Activities in Baikonur, Kazakhstan - JSC via Baikonur,

Kazakhstan (All Channels)

2 p.m. - ISS Expedition 40 Mission Overview Briefing - JSC (All Channels)

3:30 p.m. - Destination Station: ISS Science Forum - JSC (All Channels)

May 23, Friday

6 a.m. - 12 p.m. - Live Media Interviews on New Meteor Shower produced by comet 209P/LINEAR - GSFC

(NTV-3)

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website. Return to Contents

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Tue May 20, 3:15 AM 2 min 33° 33 above E 13 above ENE

Tue May 20, 4:48 AM 4 min 24° 11 above W 18 above NNE

Wed May 21, 2:28 AM < 1 min 11° 11 above ENE 11 above ENE

Wed May 21, 4:00 AM 3 min 35° 23 above W 25 above NNE

Thu May 22, 3:13 AM 1 min 51° 51 above N 24 above NE

Thu May 22, 4:48 AM 3 min 14° 10 above NW 11 above NNE

Fri May 23, 2:26 AM 1 min 20° 20 above ENE 11 above NE

Fri May 23, 3:59 AM 3 min 18° 11 above WNW 15 above N

Sat May 24, 3:12 AM 2 min 25° 25 above NW 19 above NNE

Sat May 24, 4:49 AM 2 min 11° 10 above NNW 10 above N

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Space Calendar

May 20 - Comet 272P/NEAT At Opposition (2.841 AU)

May 20 - Comet 141P/Machholz At Opposition (3.233 AU)

May 20 - Comet 226P/Pigott-LINEAR-Kowalski At Opposition (4.163 AU)

May 20 - Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (5.144 AU)

May 20 - Asteroid 242708 (2005 UK1) Near-Earth Flyby (0.094 AU)

May 20 - Asteroid 9250 Chamberlin Closest Approach To Earth (1.544 AU)

May 20 - Asteroid 4345 Rachmaninoff Closest Approach To Earth (1.940 AU)

May 20 - Asteroid 305254 Moron Closest Approach To Earth (2.015 AU)

May 21 - Cassini, Orbital Trim Maneuver #380 (OTM-380)

May 21 - Comet 132P/Helin-Roman-Alu Perihelion (1.908 AU)

May 21 - Comet P/2014 E1 (Larson) Perihelion (2.141 AU)

May 21 - Comet 134P/Kowal-Vavrova Perihelion (2.571 AU)

May 21 - Comet C/2014 G1 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (4.682 AU)

May 21 - Asteroid 2011 JR13 Near-Earth Flyby (0.051 AU)

May 21 - Asteroid 4487 Pocahontas Approach To Earth (1.047 AU)

May 21 - Asteroid 7784 Watterson Closest Approach To Earth (1.180 AU)

May 21 - Asteroid 4238 Audrey Closest Approach To Earth (1.286 AU)

May 21 - Asteroid 2000 Herschel Closest Approach To Earth (2.147 AU)

May 21 - Asteroid 1024 Hale Closest Approach To Earth (2.204 AU)

May 22 - Quasar 19 (NROL-33) Atlas 5 Launch

May 22 - Comet C/2014 F2 (Tenagra) Closest Approach To Earth (4.020 AU)

May 22 - Comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann Closest Approach To Earth (5.144 AU)

May 22 - Asteroid 9770 Discovery Closest Approach To Earth (1.002 AU)

May 22 - Asteroid 85585 Mjolnir Closest Approach To Earth (1.418 AU)

May 22 - Asteroid 3693 Barringer Closest Approach To Earth (2.463 AU)

May 23 - Comet P/2013 A2 (Scotti) At Opposition (2.794 AU)

May 23 - Comet 127P/Holt-Olmstead At Opposition (3.087 AU)

May 23 - Comet P/1998 QP54 (LONEOS-Tucker) At Opposition (3.567 AU)

May 23 - Comet P/2011 C2 (Gibbs) At Opposition (5.248 AU)

May 23 - Asteroid 2013 WF108 Near-Earth Flyby (0.029 AU)

May 23 - Asteroid 2014 FA44 Near-Earth Flyby (0.038 AU)

Source: JPL Space Calendar Return to Contents

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Food for Thought

NASA's Asteroid-Capture Mission May Test New Method to Defend Earth

In this concept image, the robotic vehicle descends to the surface of a large asteroid to collect a boulder that

it can redirect to a distant retrograde lunar orbit. Credit: NASA

NASA's bold plan to park an asteroid near the moon may also test out a new way to protect Earth from

dangerous space rocks.

Last year, the agency announced that it intends to tow a near-Earth asteroid into a stable lunar orbit, where it

could be visited repeatedly by astronauts for research and exploration purposes. NASA officials are still ironing

out the details of the mission, which may bag up an entire small space rock or snag a boulder off the surface

of a large asteroid.

If NASA decides to go with the boulder option, the asteroid-capture mission will also include a planetary-

defense demonstration, providing the first in-space test of a so-called "enhanced gravity tractor," officials said.

Given enough lead time, asteroids on a collision course with Earth can be safely deflected using a handful of

methods. One of these is the gravity tractor technique, in which a robotic probe flies alongside a space rock

for months or years, gradually nudging it off course via a slight gravitational tug.

The greater the shepherding probe's mass, the stronger its gravitational pull is. And poaching a boulder off a

potentially hazardous asteroid would allow a deflection mission to increase its mass significantly without

having to pay any additional launch costs.

"We'd go into this enhanced gravity tractor position after we retrieve the boulder and demonstrate that we

have even more gravity attraction capability by doing that," Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASA's

Near-Earth Object (NEO) observations program, told reporters in March.

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NASA has identified about a dozen promising candidates for the asteroid-capture mission, Johnson added —

six or so for each of the two options. The best target for the boulder-grab mission may be Itokawa, a 1,750-

foot-long (530 meters) space rock that was visited by Japan's Hayabusa probe in 2005.

The space agency wants astronauts to visit the redirected asteroid by 2025, to meet an exploration deadline

set by the White House. In 2010, President Barack Obama directed NASA to get people to a near-Earth

asteroid by 2025 and then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s.

The asteroid-capture mission remains in a "preformulation" phase at the moment, as NASA is still gathering

data and sorting through ideas. The space agency hopes to have a basic mission concept in place by around

the end of the year, officials have said.

In addition to the gravity tractor method, incoming space rocks could also be knocked off course with a direct

hit by a "kinetic impactor," researchers say. (These techniques could also be combined in two coordinated

space missions, slamming an asteroid with an impactor probe and then sending a gravity tractor out to finish

the job.)

More extreme measures might be necessary for extremely large asteroids and space rocks detected with little

warning time. In such cases, a nuclear bomb might be humanity's best — and perhaps only — option.

Source: Space.com Return to Contents

___________________________________________________________________________________

Spitzer Mission Extension Not Approved In NASA Senior Review; Officials Say Budget Rewrite

Possible

Source Universe Today

“Constrained budget conditions” have prompted NASA

to not approve a funding extension for the 11-year-old

Spitzer Space Telescope after fiscal 2015, but Spitzer

officials emphasized that doesn’t necessarily mean the

mission is terminated.

What this means is that the telescope is expected to

go with the “baseline” plan to finish operations after

the end of fiscal 2014 and terminate the mission by

the end of fiscal 2015, a process that was already

outlined in the NASA budget request for 2015. But

there’s a chance, officials said, that this would not

happen.

“The Spitzer project is invited to respond with a

request for a budget augmentation to conduct

continued operations with reduced operations costs,”

read the NASA response to the 2014 senior review.

This “will be considered during the FY 2016 budget

formulation process,” NASA added. “If the

administration proposes additional funding for Spitzer

in the FY16 Budget, the project will be able to

seamlessly continue operations in FY15, while awaiting

final appropriations from the Congress for FY16.”

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Space Image of the Week

Hubble's Jupiter and the Amazing Shrinking Great Red Spot Credit: NASA, ESA, and Amy Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) et al.

Explanation: Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth. It's also known for a giant swirling storm system, the Great Red Spot, featured in this sharp Hubble image from April 21. Nestled between Jupiter-girdling cloud bands, the Great Red Spot itself could still easily swallow Earth, but lately it has been shrinking. The most recent Hubble observations measure the spot to be about 10,250 miles (16,500 kilometers) across. That's the smallest ever measured by Hubble and particularly dramatic when compared to 14,500 miles measured by the Voyager 1 and 2 flybys in 1979, and historic telescopic observations from the 1800s indicating a width of about 25,500 miles on its long axis. Current indications are that the rate of shrinking is increasing for the long-lived Great Red Spot.

Source: NASA APOD Return to Contents