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Study Finds New Wrinkles on Earth’s Moon

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Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

 

New surface features of the Moon have been discovered in a region called Mare Frigoris, outlined here in teal. This image is a mosaic composed of many images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).Credit: NASA

 

Billions of years ago, Earth’s Moon formed vast basins called “mare” (pronounced MAR-ay). Scientists have long assumed these basins were dead, still places where the last geologic activity occurred long before dinosaurs roamed Earth.

But a survey of more than 12,000 images reveals that at least one lunar mare has been cracking and shifting as much as other parts of the Moon – and may even be doing so today. The study adds to a growing understanding that the Moon is an actively changing world.

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This entry was posted in Earth's Moon, Goddard Space Flight Center, JPL Pasadena CA, Lobate Thrusts, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Mars Insight Lander, Mars Quake Detection, Moonquakes, Nature Geoscience, News, Publications, Seismometer on Mars and tagged , , , , , , .

New Clues About How Ancient Galaxies Lit up the Universe

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Calla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov 

 

This deep-field view of the sky (center) taken by NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes is dominated by galaxies – including some very faint, very distant ones – circled in red. The bottom right inset shows the light collected from one of those galaxies during a long-duration observation.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESA/Spitzer/P. Oesch/S. De Barros/I.Labbe

 

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed that some of the universe’s earliest galaxies were brighter than expected. The excess light is a byproduct of the galaxies releasing incredibly high amounts of ionizing radiation. The finding offers clues to the cause of the Epoch of Reionization, a major cosmic event that transformed the universe from being mostly opaque to the brilliant starscape seen today. 

In a new study (Royal Astronomical Society), researchers report on observations of some of the first galaxies to form in the universe, less than 1 billion years after the big bang (or a little more than 13 billion years ago). The data show that in a few specific wavelengths of infrared light, the galaxies are considerably brighter than scientists anticipated. The study is the first to confirm this phenomenon for a large sampling of galaxies from this period, showing that these were not special cases of excessive brightness, but that even average galaxies present at that time were much brighter in these wavelengths than galaxies we see today. 

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This entry was posted in Ancient Look At Universe, Galaxies, Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), Hubble Space Telescope, JPL Pasadena CA, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, News, Royal Astronomical Society, Swift Observatory Space Telescope, Universe Expansion and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , .

OCO-3 Ready to Extend NASA’s Study of Carbon

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 Written by Jane Platt
 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

 

OCO-3 sits on the large vibration table (known as the “shaker”) in the Environmental Test Lab at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

When the Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3, OCO-3, heads to the International Space Station, it will bring a new view – literally – to studies of Earth’s carbon cycle.

From its perch on the space station, OCO-3 will observe near-global measurements of carbon dioxide on land and sea, from just after sunrise to just before sunset. That makes it far more versatile and powerful than its predecessior, OCO-2.

 

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This entry was posted in Carbon Dioxide Testing/Monitoring, Climate Studies, Earth Science from Space (Satellites), International Space Station (ISS), JPL Pasadena CA, NASA, NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3), NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), News and tagged , , , , , , , .