Launched in 2004, the NASA Messenger spacecraft has been orbiting Mercury since April 2011, bringing a new light over the smallest and closest planet to the Sun of the Solar System. It has been the first mission to explore this planet since the Mariner 10 mission back in the 70′s, and the results have been highly surprising.
In november 2012, NASA announced that Messenger had revealed the presence of ice and frozen tar deep inside craters at the poles of Mercury, where sunlight never reaches and the temperatures is -200ºC, quite a contrast to the +400ºC at the lighted surface of the planet. Messenger has also done high-resolution maps of the surface of Mercury, down to the scale of a few meters, revealing the complex chemical composition of this highly-dense planet.
Now NASA has revealed a new colour-coded map of the surface, where the different compositions of the rocks are shown. What is surprising is the high amount of volatile compounts such as potassium or sulfur which most models of planet formation predict that they should evaporate during the early stages of formation. Mercury is therefore quite paradigmatic, with an enormous iron core that creates a large magnetic field and a surface with unexpected elements. New models will be needed to explain these, and astronomers are already thinking about diferent theories like diferents chemical conditions at the inner part of the nebula that created the solar system or an enormous impact at early formation stages that would have stripped Mercury of most of its rocky external layers.
So far, more observations are needed but we can enjoy already this fabulous colored view of that mistery planet that Mercury still is. The more orange areas are volcanic plains while the make-up of the rocks in the deep blue areas is unknown. Though Messenger was able to detect the abundance of individual elements on Mercury’s surface – including iron, titanium, sulphur and potassium – without rock samples to study, it is impossible to determine the exact compounds or minerals in which those elements are arranged.
The number of refereed papers published based on data from ESO and other telescopes over the period 1996 to the 2012. Credit: ESO
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) Library compiles the number of peer-reviewed papers published every year using the data obtained by the Astronomy comunity worldwide. They are able to produce this very nice statistic about which observatory is the most productive around.
For 2012, the ESO Telescopes have been the most productives with more than 870 peer-reviewed article, slightly ahead of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) which has been the most productive telescope for the last 15 years. The Very Large Telescope/Very Large Telescope Interferometer of ESO, which is located at Atacama (Chile), is the single most productive ground based telescope nearly doubling the output of the Keck Telescopes, located at Mauna Kea, Hawaii (USA).
Some space-based telescopes like Chandra and XMM are seeing a decline in production the last few years since their operations are either over or closing to their end. They still produce quite an interesting amount of science. But the Astronomy community is more productive than ever with an increase in production every year, despite the decrease in budgets which has been hitting all the observatories in recent years. Congratulations to all!
Today is the 540th birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus (19/02/1473 – 24/05/1543), the polish astronomer and mathematician who changed our view of the Universe by stating that the Earth was just one planet revolving around the Sun, at the center of the Solar System. His book De revolutionibus orbium coelestiumpublished in 1543, after his death, is probably one of the most important science books in history.
To mark this birthday, I invite you to discover the Symphony No.2 wrote by the polish composer Henryk Górecky (06/12/1933-12/11/2010). This symphony called “Copernican” was comissioned to him in 1972 to celebrate the 500th birthday of Copernicus in 1973. It is an impressive grand scale work for Solo Soprano, Baritone, Choir and Orchestra, consisting in two distinct movements. The text featured includes parts of Psalms 6, 135 and 145 as well as excerpts of Copernicus’ masterwork, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium.
Listen to the amazing finale of the symphony, close your eyes and let your mind float freely between the stars…
Maravillosa imagen de Saturno del 17 de octubre, gracias a la nave Cassini, que podemos encontrar en la página de la Nasa, en la cual vemos a Saturno eclipsando al Sol.
!Ha vuelto Felix Baumgartner! Hoy volverá a intentar su salto desde 36.500 kms de altura. Por el momento en la página de Red Bull Stratos indican que vuelve a haber fuerte viento y esperan intentarlo a las 16:4517:15, aunque con la experiencia del martes pasado, donde continuamente estuvieron retrasando la hora del intento, no hay nada asegurado.
Si finalmente salta desde la estratosfera, se espera que llegue a romper la barrera del sonido y superará el anterior record mundial de 31.300 metros de altura, conseguido en 1960 por Joe Kittinger.
Su proeza o posible muerte se podrá seguir en directo desde aquí.
El astronauta Neil Armstrong falleció a los 82 años a las 20:42 (hora peninsular española) después de complicarse una operación de bypass coronario el 8 de agosto, según informan fuentes familiares y compañeros a la cadena estadounidense NBC.
Neil Armstrong fue nuestro Cristobal Colón contemporáneo, el primer hombre que pisó otra tierra fuera de la nuestra y dejó para la posteridad aquella frase de “Un gran paso para el hombre, un gran paso para la humanidad”.
Gracias Neil por dar ese paso por todos nosotros y parafraseándote:
Neil Armstrong a dado un pequeño paso a la muerte, pero uno grande a la inmortalidad
A partir de 817 fotografías tomadas desde el robot Opportunity durante cuatro horas, la Nasa ha publicado una nueva perspectiva de Marte que nos hace soñar con estar allí, como puedes ver, en el mundo marciano nos esperar un gran desierto (y eso que se dice que llegó a tener dos océanos) y un extraño cielo amarillento que nos hará echar de menos nuestro querido cielo azul.
En este enlace puedes saber más sobre esta fotografía y la descargarla a diferentes tamaños (¡incluido uno de 124 megas!).
¿Echabas de menos los Timelapses en esta web? Pues la espera mereció la pena, desde nuestro país llega esta maravilla creada por Luciano Rodríguez y Luis Caldevilla, aprovechando la invitación de Miquel Serra-Ricart, administrador del Observatorio del Teide del Instituto Astrofísico de Canarias, para impartir un curso sobre fotografía timelapse.
Otra vez las islas afortunadas vuelven a demostrar ser un marco perfecto para estos trabajos, sino recordar el Timelapse en el Teide de hace algo más de un año
