IntellectBeat

Scientists have detected atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere for the first time since the last observation 40 years ago. Atomic oxygen - an elemental form of oxygen that does not exist in Earth's atmosphere - affects how other gases escape Mars and therefore has a significant impact on the planet's atmosphere.  An instrument onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) - a joint project of Nasa and the German Aerospace Center - helped detect these atoms in the upper layers of the Martian atmosphere known as the mesosphere, Nasa said in a statement. "Atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is notoriously difficult to measure," said SOFIA project scientist Pamela Marcum.  "To observe the far-infrared wavelengths needed to detect atomic oxygen, researchers must be above the majority of Earth's atmosphere and use highly sensitive instruments, in this case a spectrometer. SOFIA provides both capabilities," Marcum noted. The s...

The US space agency has kept a five millennium catalogue of all the eclipses (both solar and lunar) that have occurred or will occur from 1999 BC to the year AD 3000. "NASA knows that on January 27, in the year 2837, a total solar eclipse will pass over southern Mexico. If the onlookers are lucky and it is a clear day, they will see a show that has captivated people on this planet for as long as we have been on Earth," a report on Vox.com website said. The space agency even knows the exact time, down to the fraction of a second, that the eclipses will occur. NASA is able to make eclipse predictions because it has all of the variables: the orbit of the Earth around the sun, the orbit of the moon around the Earth and the daily rotation of the Earth, the report said. NASA said that any given eclipse will repeat on an "eight years, 11 days, eight hours" cycle -- commonly known as the Saros cycle. Although, the eclipses repeat, they do not repeat in the exact same lo...

More and more people are set to explore the outer space in the coming years with technology offering greater chance than in the last six decades, Nasa astronaut Scott Parazynski said Ahmedabad Thursday. He was speaking on the topic 'Human Destiny in Space: Current & Future Prospects' at the Physical Research Laboratory Ahmedabad. "It is a very exciting time in the history as we are going to fly many more people, both scientists as well as tourists, into the space than we did in the last six decades," said Parazynski, who has travelled into the space five times as a  Nasa scientist. "If 550 people travelled into the space in the last six decades, we can expect 5,000 people to travel there in the next decade," he said, while sharing his experiences as an astronaut who has stayed in the space for more than eight weeks and spacewalked for 47 hours. "Imagine 5,000 people flying in the next one decade, and 50,000 in another decade. Space tourism prom...

Lab mice that spent just two weeks in space returned to Earth with early signs of liver disease, scientists have found, raising concerns about how long-term spaceflight and future missions to Mars may affect the health of astronauts. The mice studied spent 13.5 days aboard NASA's space shuttle Atlantis. When they returned, researchers collected liver samples. They found that spaceflight appeared to activate specialised liver cells that may go on to induce scarring and cause long-term damage to the organ. "We saw the beginning of nascent liver damage in just 13.5 days. The mice also lost lean muscle mass," said Karen Jonscher, from the University of Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus. "We knew that astronauts often returned with diabetes-like symptoms but they usually resolved quickly," Jonscher said. "We have seen this same phenomenon in humans on bedrest - muscles atrophy and proteins break down into amino acids," she said. For years scientis...

A camera lens used by the commander of the 1971 Apollo 15 space mission both on the lunar surface and in orbit is up for auction. Boston-based RR Auction says the 12-inch long Zeiss Tele-Tessar 500mm f/8 lens could get more than $500,000 during the sale that starts Thursday. The lens was designed specifically for the Hasselblad Electric Data Camera used by astronaut David Scott to take nearly 300 photos. The silver lens is engraved near the mount with NASA part numbers. Special tabs were fitted to the rotational parts used to adjust the focus and f-stop to make them easier to use while wearing pressurized spacesuit gloves. The 83-year-old Scott says in a letter that accompanies the sale that NASA gave the lens to him as a memento.

All Earth imagery - consisting of more than 2.95 million individual scenes -- from a prolific Japanese remote sensing instrument operating aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft since late 1999 has now been made available to users everywhere at no cost , NASA announced on Friday. "The public will have unlimited access to the complete 16-plus-year database for Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument, which images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet,” the US space agency said in a statement. ASTER's database currently consists of more than 2.95 million individual scenes. The content ranges from the devastating aftermath of flooding in Pakistan to volcanic eruptions in Iceland and wildfires in California. Previously, users could access ASTER's global digital topographic maps of Earth online at no cost, but paid METI a nominal fee to order other ASTER dat...

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly , who recently completed a year-long mission on the International Space Station (ISS) during his 20-year-long association with the US space agency, retired on Friday. The veteran astronaut said goodbye to his illustrious career with the US record for most cumulative time in space - 520 days. He will continue to participate in the ongoing research related to his one-year mission, providing periodic medical samples and supporting other testing in the same way his twin brother and former astronaut Mark Kelly, made himself available for NASA's twins study. “The year-in-space mission was a profound challenge for all involved, and it gave me a unique perspective and a lot of time to reflect on what my next step should be," Kelly said in a statement. According to him, the view of rainbow-hued Himalayan lakes and steady work helped him stay sane during the ISS stay. Kelly said he was "humbled and excited by new opportunities" for him that sup...

The US space agency and tech giant Microsoft have teamed up to create " Destination: Mars ", a guided tour of Mars using the same Hololens headset technology that helps scientists plan the Curiosity rover's activities on Red Planet . It will offer people a guided tour of an area of Mars with astronaut Buzz Aldrin this summer in an interactive exhibit using the Microsoft HoloLens mixed reality headset. “ Mixed reality ” means that virtual elements are merged with the user's actual environment, creating a world in which real and virtual objects can interact. The "Destination: Mars" exhibit will open at NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center's visitor complex in Florida this summer, the US space agency said in a statement. Guests will “visit” several sites on Mars, reconstructed using real imagery from NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover, which has been exploring the Red Planet since August 2012. Aldrin, an Apollo 11 astronaut who walked on the moon in 1969, will ...

Nasa is calling off its next mission to Mars because there isn't enough time to fix a leaky seal on a key science instrument. The InSight spacecraft was set for launch in March. The problem is with a protective pouch around the lander's seismometer, which was designed to measure ground movement on the red planet. Nasa managers and French designers of the instrument said Tuesday they must now decide whether the pouch's vacuum seal needs to be repaired, redesigned or the mission scrapped. The next opportunity to launch the InSight lander is in May 2018 since the best chances of launching missions between Earth and Mars occur for just a few weeks every 26 months. "We're close enough to launch but unfortunately we don't have enough time to try to identify the leak, fix it and recover and still make it to the launch pad in March," said John Grunsfeld, Nasa's science mission chief. The goal of the mission was to explore the interior core, mantle and cr...