Solar System: Things To Know This Week

Perfect 10: A Decade of Studying Ice from the Sky

From 2009 through 2019, our Operation IceBridge flew planes above the Arctic, Antarctic and Alaska, measuring the height, depth, thickness, flow and change of sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets.

IceBridge was designed to “bridge” the years between NASA’s two Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellites, ICESat and ICESat-2. IceBridge made its final polar flight in November 2019, one year after ICESat-2’s successful launch.

A lot of amazing science happens in a decade of fundamentally changing the way we see ice. Here, in chronological order, are 10 of IceBridge’s most significant and exciting achievements.

2009: Go for launch

The first ICESat monitored ice, clouds, atmospheric particles and vegetation globally beginning in 2003. As ICESat neared the end of its life, we made plans to keep measuring ice elevation with aircraft until ICESat-2’s launch.

ICESat finished its service in August 2009, leaving IceBridge in charge of polar ice tracking for the next decade.

2009: Snow on sea ice

To measure how thick sea ice is, we first have to know how much snow is accumulated on top of the ice. Using a snow radar instrument, IceBridge gathered the first widespread data set of snow thickness on top of both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice.

2009: Getting to the bottom of glaciers 

IceBridge mapped hundreds of miles of grounding lines in both Antarctica and Greenland. Grounding lines are where a glacier’s bottom loses contact with the bedrock and begins floating on seawater – a grounding line that is higher than rock that the ice behind it is resting on increases the possibility of glaciers retreating in the future. 

The team mapped 200 glaciers along Greenland’s coastal areas, as well as coastal areas, the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet and high-priority areas in Antarctica.

2011: Spotting cracks in the ice

While flying Antarctica in 2011, IceBridge scientists spotted a massive crack in Pine Island Glacier, one of the fastest-changing glaciers on the continent. The crack produced a new iceberg that October.

Pine Island has grown thinner and more unstable in recent decades, spawning new icebergs almost every year. IceBridge watched for cracks that could lead to icebergs and mapped features like the deep water channel underneath Pine Island Glacier, which may bring warm water to its underside and make it melt faster.

2013: Making a map of rock

Using surface elevation, ice thickness and bedrock topography data from ICESat, IceBridge and international partners, the British Antarctic Survey created an updated map of the bedrock beneath Antarctic ice.

Taking gravity and magnetic measurements helps scientists understand what kind of rock lies below the ice sheet. Soft rock and meltwater make ice flow faster, while hard rock makes it harder for the ice to flow quickly.

2013: Surprises under the ice

IceBridge’s airborne radar data helped map the bedrock underneath the Greenland Ice Sheet, revealing a previously unknown canyon more than 400 miles long and up to a half mile deep slicing through the northern half of the country.

The “grand canyon” of Greenland may have once been a river system, and today likely transports meltwater from Greenland’s interior to the Arctic Ocean.

2015: It’s what’s inside (the ice sheet) that counts

After mapping the bedrock under the Greenland Ice Sheet, scientists turned their attention to the middle layers of the ice. Using both ice-penetrating radar and ice samples taken in the field, IceBridge created the first map of the ice sheet’s many layers, formed as thousands of years of snow became compacted downward and formed ice.

Making the 3D map of Greenland’s ice layers gave us clues as to how the ice sheet has warmed in the past, and where it may be frozen to bedrock or slowly melting instead.

2018: Gap bridged!

ICESat-2 launched on September 15, 2018, rocketing IceBridge into the final phase of its mission: Connecting ICESat and ICESat-2.

IceBridge continued flying after ICESat-2’s launch, working to verify the new satellite’s measurements. By conducting precise underflights, where planes traced the satellite’s orbit lines and took the same measurements at nearly the same time, the science teams could compare results and make sure ICESat-2’s instruments were functioning properly.

2018: An impact crater under the ice

Using IceBridge data, an international team of scientists found an impact crater from a meteor thousands of years in the past. The crater is larger than the city of Washington, D.C., likely created by a meteor more than half a mile wide.

2019: Flying into the sunset

In 2019, IceBridge continued flying in support of ICESat-2 for its Arctic and Antarctic campaigns. The hundreds of terabytes of data the team collected over the decade will fuel science for years to come.

IceBridge finished its last polar flight on November 20, 2019. The team will complete one more set of Alaska flights in 2020.

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Strap in for a Tour of the Milky Way

The night sky isn’t flat. If you traveled deep into this part of the sky at the speed of the radio waves leaving this tower, here are some places you could reach.

Jupiter: Travel time – 35 minutes, 49 seconds.

The closest object in this view is the planet Jupiter, brilliant now in the evening sky…and gorgeous when seen up close by our Juno spacecraft. Distance on the night this picture was taken: 400 million miles (644 million kilometers). 

Saturn: Travel time – one hour and 15 minutes.

The next closest is Saturn, another bright “star” in this summer’s sky. On the right, one of the Cassini spacecraft’s last looks. Distance: 843 million miles (1.3 billion kilometers).

Pluto: Light-speed travel time from the radio tower – four hours, 33 minutes.

It’s not visible to the unaided eye, but Pluto is currently found roughly in this direction. Our New Horizons space mission was the first to show us what it looks like. Distance: more than 3 billion miles.

F-type star, HD 169830: Light-speed travel time from the radio tower – 123 years.

Within this patch of sky, there’s an F-type star called HD 169830. At this speed, it would take you 123 years to get there. We now know it has at least two planets (one of which is imagined here) — just two of more than 4,000 we've found…so far.

The Lagoon Nebula: Light-speed travel time from the radio tower – 4,000 years.

If you look closely, you’ll see a fuzzy patch of light and color here. If you look *really* closely, as our Hubble Space Telescope did, you’ll see the Lagoon Nebula, churning with stellar winds from newborn stars.

Black hole, Sagittarius A*: Light-speed travel time from the radio tower – 26,000 years.

In 26,000 years, after passing millions of stars, you could reach the center of our galaxy. Hidden there behind clouds of dust is a massive black hole. It’s hidden, that is, unless you use our Chandra X-ray Observatory which captured the x-ray flare seen here.

The next time you’re under a deep, dark sky, don’t forget to look up…and wonder what else might be out there.

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Do you have any protections against asteroids?

More Space...in Space

How do you create more space…in space? The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is one solution to creating additional working space on the International Space Station.

BEAM will be deployed to its full size this Thursday, May 26, and begin its two-year technology demonstration attached to the space station. The astronauts aboard will first enter the habitat on June 2, and re-enter the module several times a year throughout the test period. While inside, they will retrieve sensor data and assess conditions inside the module.

Why Use an Expandable Habitat?

Expandable habitats are designed to take up less room on a spacecraft, but provide greater volume for living and working in space once expanded. This first test of an expandable module will allow investigators to gauge how well it performs and specifically, how well it protects against solar radiation, space debris and the temperature extremes of space.

BEAM launched April 8 aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, and is an example of our increased commitment to partnering with industry to enable the growth of commercial use of space.

Get Involved!

During expansion, we will provide live Mission Control updates on NASA Television starting at 5:30 a.m. EDT on Thursday, May 26.

Make your own origaBEAMi!

To coincide with the expansion, here is a simple and fun activity called “origaBEAMi” that lets you build your own miniature inflatable BEAM module. Download the “crew procedures” HERE that contain step-by-step instructions on how to print and fold your BEAM module. You can also view a “how to” video HERE.

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Our New Satellite to Study the Edge of Space

We're about to launch a new satellite called ICON — the Ionospheric Connection Explorer — to study our planet's boundary to space.

The overlap between Earth's upper atmosphere and outer space is complicated and constantly changing. It's made up of a mix of neutral gas (like the air we breathe) and charged particles, where negatively charged electrons have separated from positively charged ions. This charged particle soup reacts uniquely to the changing electric and magnetic fields in near-Earth space, while weather conditions from here on Earth can also travel upwards and influence this region. This makes Earth's interface to space a dynamic, hard-to-predict region of the atmosphere.

Understanding what causes the changes in this region and how to predict them isn't just a matter of curiosity. Earth's boundary to space is home to many of our Earth-orbiting satellites, and it also plays a role in transmitting signals for communications and navigation systems. Unpredictable changes here can garble those signals and even shorten the lifetime of satellites.

ICON, launching on Nov. 7, will study this region with a unique combination of instruments. Orbiting about 360 miles above Earth, ICON will use its cameras to measure winds near the upper edge of Earth’s boundary to space and track atmospheric composition and temperature by studying a phenomenon called airglow. ICON also carries an instrument that will capture and measure the particles directly around the spacecraft, or in situ. 

ICON is launching aboard a Northrop Grumman Pegasus XL rocket. On launch day, the Pegasus XL is carried out over the ocean by Northrop Grumman's L-1011 Stargazer aircraft, which takes off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. About 50 miles off the coast of Florida, the Pegasus XL drops from the plane and free-falls for about five seconds before igniting and carrying ICON into low-Earth orbit.

NASA TV coverage of the launch starts at 2:45 a.m. EST on Nov. 7 at nasa.gov/live. You can also follow along with the mission on Twitter, Facebook or at nasa.gov/icon.

Farewell to the Van Allen Probes

After seven years of studying the radiation around Earth, the Van Allen Probes spacecraft have retired.

Originally slated for a two-year mission, these two spacecraft studied Earth's radiation belts — giant, donut-shaped clouds of particles surrounding Earth — for nearly seven years. The mission team used the last of their propellant this year to place the spacecraft into a lower orbit that will eventually decay, allowing the Van Allen Probes to re-enter and burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

Earth's radiation belts exist because energized charged particles from the Sun and other sources in space become trapped in our planet's huge magnetic field, creating vast regions around Earth that teem with radiation. This is one of the harshest environments in space — and the Van Allen Probes survived more than three times longer than planned orbiting through this intense region.

The shape, size and intensity of the radiation belts change, meaning that satellites — like those used for telecommunications and GPS — can be bombarded with a sudden influx of radiation. The Van Allen Probes shed new light on what invisible forces drive these changes — like waves of charged particles and electromagnetic fields driven by the Sun, called space weather. 

Here are a few scientific highlights from the Van Allen Probes — from the early days of the mission to earlier this year:

The Van Allen belts were first discovered in 1958, and for decades, scientists thought there were only two concentric belts. But, days after the Van Allen Probes launched, scientists discovered that during times of intense solar activity, a third belt can form.

The belts are composed of charged particles and electromagnetic fields and can be energized by different types of plasma waves. One type, called electrostatic double layers, appear as short blips of enhanced electric field. During one observing period, Probe B saw 7,000 such blips repeatedly pass over the spacecraft in a single minute!

During big space weather storms, which are ultimately caused by activity on the Sun, ions — electrically charged atoms or molecules — can be pushed deep into Earth’s magnetosphere. These particles carry electromagnetic currents that circle around the planet and can dramatically distort Earth’s magnetic field.

Across space, fluctuating electric and magnetic fields can create what are known as plasma waves. These waves intensify during space weather storms and can accelerate particles to incredible speeds. The Van Allen Probes found that one type of plasma wave known as hiss can contribute greatly to the loss of electrons from the belts.

The Van Allen belts are composed of electrons and ions with a range of energies. In 2015, research from the Van Allen Probes found that, unlike the outer belt, there were no electrons with energies greater than a million electron volts in the inner belt.

Plasma waves known as whistler chorus waves are also common in our near-Earth environment. These waves can travel parallel or at an angle to the local magnetic field. The Van Allen Probes demonstrated the two types of waves cannot be present simultaneously, resulting in greater radiation belt particle scattering in certain areas.

Very low frequency chorus waves, another variety of plasma waves, can pump up the energy of electrons to millions of electronvolts. During storm conditions, the Van Allen Probes found these waves can hugely increase the energy of particles in the belts in just a few hours.  

Scientists often use computer simulation models to understand the physics behind certain phenomena. A model simulating particles in the Van Allen belts helped scientists understand how particles can be lost, replenished and trapped by Earth’s magnetic field.

The Van Allen Probes observed several cases of extremely energetic ions speeding toward Earth. Research found that these ions’ acceleration was connected to their electric charge and not to their mass.

The Sun emits faster and slower gusts of charged particles called the solar wind. Since the Sun rotates, these gusts — the fast wind — reach Earth periodically. Changes in these gusts cause the extent of the region of cold ionized gas around Earth — the plasmasphere — to shrink. Data from the Van Allen Probes showed that such changes in the plasmasphere fluctuated at the same rate as the solar rotation — every 27 days.

Though the mission has ended, scientists will use data from the Van Allen Probes for years to come. See the latest Van Allen Probes science at nasa.gov/vanallen.

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300 Consecutive Days in Space!

Today marks astronaut Scott Kelly’s 300th day in space! He, along with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, are testing the limits of human research during their one-year mission onboard the International Space Station.

While most expeditions to the space station last four to six months, their time on orbit has been doubled. By increasing the length of their time in space, researchers hope to better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight.

What happens when you’ve been in space for 300 days?

1. You might get bored and play ping pong with yourself…and a water droplet.

2. There’s a chance that you’ll get a Tweet from someone famous…like the President!

3. There may come a time where you’ll have to fix something outside the station during a spacewalk.

4. You might develop a ‘green thumb’ and grow plants in space.

5. And, there’s no doubt you get to see the Earth from a totally new perspective.

To learn more about the one-year mission, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/1ym 

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Do pets like cats and dogs need to have their eyes protected in anyway? Should they be kept away from windows?

They should be fine. Animals typically don’t look at the Sun so they probably won't during the eclipse either.

Does space have a standard time or do you rely on the time zones on Earth while you are in space?

Great question.  Really it is up to the particular space agency/mission which time zone they use.  For example, since the International Space Station is a collaboration between NASA, the Russian Space Agency, the European Space Agency, the Japanese Space Agency, and the Canadian Space Agency, we came up with the compromise of operating on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).  So, Space Station time is the same as London time!  The International Space Station orbits our planet every 90 minutes, so of course we’re transiting across multiple time zones constantly.  

Rare Full Moon on Christmas Day

Not since 1977 has a full moon dawned in the skies on Christmas. But this year, a bright full moon will be an added gift for the holidays.

This full moon, the last of the year, is called the Full Cold Moon because it occurs during the beginning of winter.

Make sure you get outside to check out this rare event because it won’t happen again until 2034!

Here are a few fun facts about the event and our moon:

The moon’s peak this year will occur at 6:11 a.m. EST

As you gaze up at the Christmas moon, take note that we have a spacecraft currently orbiting Earth’s moon. Our Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission has been investigating the lunar surface since 2009

More than 100 spacecraft have been launched to explore the moon

Our moon is the only celestial body beyond Earth that has been visited by human beings..so far!

Twelve human beings have walked on the surface of the moon

The moon makes a complete orbit around Earth in 27 Earth days and rotates or spins at the same rate. This causes the moon to keep the same side, or face, towards Earth during the course of its orbit

The moon is the brightest and largest feature in the night sky. Venus is second

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