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Excerpts from JPL mission updates are provided as a public service as part |
Background screen credits: NGC 5775 - Imaged March 21/22, 2001 using the 16" Kitt Peak Visitors Center telescope as part of the Advanced Observing Program.
| Planetary Highlights for December - The star Algol in the constellationof Perseus is eclipsed by its companion this month dimming by 70% of its normal brightness of magnitude 2.1. The best nights to observe this dimming are the nights of December 13/14 when fading begins at 11 pm EST and reaches minimum brightness of magnitude 3.4 around 1:20 am EST returning to almost normal about 2 hours later. The next good night to view the dimming is December 16, beginning at 8 pm EST and ending around 12 am EST. The eclipse normally takes about 10 hours to complete but the most noticeable dimming and brightening occurs in the middle 4 hours. | |
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Mercury - Is at greatest western elongation (21°) on the 12th. Mercury is visible in the morning skies low on the eastern horizon this month. Mercury shines at magnitude -0.6 on the 31st. |
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Venus - Is at greatest brightness (magnitude -4.6) on the 9th. Look to the west soon after sunset to spot Venus moving through the constellation of Sagittarius into Capricornus this month. Venus sets at 7:32 pm on the 1st and 6:21 pm by month's end. |
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Earth - Winter solstice is at 1:35 pm EST on the 21st. |
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Mars - Sets about 4:37 am on the 1st and about 2:50 am by month's end. Mars is in the constellation of Aries this month. Mars shines at magnitude -1.6 on the 1st and dims to magnitude -0.6 by the 31st |
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Jupiter - Can be spotted in the early morning twilight glow low on the eastern horizon this month. Jupiter rises at 4:23 am on the 1st and about 2:49 am by month's end. Jupiter moves in the constellation of Libra. Jupiter shines at magnitude -1.8. |
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Saturn - Rises around 9:05 pm on the 1st and about 6:56 pm by month's end. Look for Saturn on the morning of December 2 around 4 am EST and try to spot 7 of its moons (west of planet - Titan, Rhea, Tethys, east of planet - Mimas, Enceladus, Dione and Iapetus) close to the planet. Saturn is in the constellation of Cancer. Saturn shines at a magnitude of 0.1. |
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Uranus - Sets at 11:21 pm on the 1st and about 9:23 pm by month's end. Uranus is in the constellation of Aquarius and shines at a magnitude of 5.9. |
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Neptune - Sets at 9:32 pm on the 1st and about 7:43 pm by month's end. Neptune is in the constellation of Capricornus and shines at a magnitude of 8.0. |
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Pluto - Is in conjunction with the Sun on the 15th. Pluto is in the constellation of Ophiuchus. Pluto is not visible this month. |
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Meteor Showers
The Geminids - This shower is active during the period December 6 to December 19. Upon reaching maximum activity during December 13 to 14, hourly rates are typically near 80. The meteors are described as rapid and yellowish, with about 4% displaying persistent trains. They possess an average magnitude of 2.4. For more information about Comets and Meteor Showers, visit Gary Kronk's Comets & Meteors Showers web page. |
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Comets
C/2005 E2 (McNaught) - This 10th magnitude comet lies in the constellation of Capricornus along the line of the four bright stars that form the eastern border of the constellation. Dark skies are required for observing this comet either very early or during the last 2 weeks of the month. The comet sets around 9 pm this month. For information, orbital elements and ephemerides on observable comets, visit the Observable Comets page from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. For more information about Comets and Meteor Showers, visit Gary Kronk's Comets & Meteors Showers web page. |
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Eclipses
No eclipse activity this month. |
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Ocultations
More information on occultations can be found by clicking the IOTA logo. |
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Asteroids
(From west to east)
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Cassini - November 26, 2005 - Cassini Images the Plumes of Enceladus
"Cassini imaging scientists are excited about intriguing images of fountain-like plumes towering over Saturn's moon Enceladus. Images of a crescent Enceladus returned by Cassini this past weekend show multiple plumes in striking detail. The plumes consist of fine icy particles, emanating from the warm, geologically active area surrounding the south pole of Enceladus and believed now to supply the material of Saturn's E ring." For the latest mission status reports, visit Cassini Mission Status web page. The speed and location of the spacecraft along its flightpath can be viewed on the "Where is Cassini Now?" web page. |
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Deep Impact - November 28, 2005 -
Science Team Continues Data Analysis
"In the past month, the science team has continued with its data analysis of Deep Impact's encounter with comet Tempel 1. Detailed computations are required to convert a picture made up of raw data numbers returned from space into an image containing numbers of physical meaning. This process is called calibration. It is carried out by observing stars of known light output, or radiance, and scaling the value of that output to the known quantity of radiation produced by the star. This is like synchronizing your watch, so that everyone has the same time reference. In this case the reference is to a scale of energy output. We have updated our calibration numbers using the most recent data taken just before and after impact. We have made improvements in subtraction of the background signal that exists in every electronic detector so that we can analyze the signal from the comet and not the noise from the camera's detector. With the known value of the star expressed in units of energy, we then determine the energy released from the comet. Ken Klaasen and other team members have been working hard on this." For the latest mission status reports, visit http://www.nasa.gov/deepimpact and http://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/. |
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Stardust - November 14, 2005 -
NASA's Stardust Mission: Returning Comet Samples to Earth
"Why Explore Comets? Over a lifetime, most people are fortunate enough to see at least a few bright comets grace the night sky. The bright ones, along with their more numerous faint siblings, are mysterious travelers from the frigid and most distant parts of the solar system. When a comet approaches the sun, its surface warms and it dramatically becomes brighter. To an observer on Earth, a bright comet may be seen over a period of weeks or months. It drifts across the constellations, gets brighter from night to night and then slowly fades to invisibility after rounding the sun and heading back into to the depths of space. Over the past half century, Hale-Bopp, West, Hyakutake, Ikeya-Seki and Bennett have all been bright comets that could be easily seen with the naked eye, sometimes even by observers looking into the brightly lit skies of modern cities. With the unaided eye, we see comets as objects with a hazy head and one or two nebulous tails stretching away from the Sun. Only rare comets are truly bright and most appear as mere ghostly visitors, clearly out of place among the familiar sky of stars and planets."
Stardust LPSC 2004 Abstracts For more information on the Stardust mission - the first ever comet sample return mission - please visit the Stardust home page. |
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Past, Present, Future and Proposed JPL Missions - http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions Visit JPL's mission pages for current status. |
Mars Missions
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Mars Global Surveyor - No new news since September 12, 2005 - Happy 8th Birthday, MGS
"Mars Global Surveyor wins the title of the oldest spacecraft currently in operation at Mars! The spacecraft's lasting success has enabled scientists to capture repeating weather phenomena and new, fresh insights revealing Mars as an active planet."
Mars Global Surveyor Images - November 10-23, 2005
Information about how to submit requests is online at the new Mars Orbiter Camera Target Request Site, at http://www.msss.com/plan/intro" Newly-released MOC images can be seen in the MOC Gallery, a web site maintained by Malin Space Science Systems, the company that built and operates MOC for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA. Mars Global Surveyor has completed its eighth year orbiting the red planet. MGS reached Mars on 12 September 1997. The first MOC images were obtained on 15 September 1997. Visit the MGS pages at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/index.html. There are over 200,000 images of Mars from the MGS, check out the newest MGS images of the surface of Mars. |
An upgraded Web site offers images from Mars as soon as they are received from the camera on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter. It also has user-controlled navigation to scroll and zoom within selected images, plus a global map for finding images.
Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) web site.
Mars Odyssey Themis Images October 24-28, 2005
The Odyssey data are available through a new online access system established by the Planetary Data System at: http://starbrite.jpl.nasa.gov/pds/"
Visit the Mars Odyssey Mission page.
"Spirit is healthy and has begun driving downhill from the top of "Husband Hill" toward the south basin. Elevation maps produced from the panoramic camera imagery taken at and near the summit of Husband Hill showed a safe traverse (with vehicle tilts under about 20 degrees) across ridge lines east of the summit. These ridge lines (informally called "Haskin upper ridge" and "Haskin east ridge") are the planned traverse paths for coming weeks. When possible, Spirit will drive each day."
Opportunity Status: Maneuvering Around Ripples - sol 613-618, Oct 212, 2005
"Opportunity is healthy and has been making excellent progress around "Erebus Crater." At the beginning of the week, the rover was in automode as it was still recovering from a partial uplink, but on sol 614 the team sent a real-time activate command and the rover performed remote sensing. The team is no longer operating under restricted sols, and Opportunity traveled 101.65 meters (333 feet) in four sols. The rover is generally heading westward around the crater, but traveled northward on sol 618 to avoid some larger ripples to the west."
Visit the Mars Exploration Rover page.
"The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter set the record for interplanetary missions, sending back the most data in a single day.
An unprecedented amount of data - the equivalent of 13 CDs - was returned by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission in a single day! NASA's latest mission to Mars sent 75 gigabits of data back to Earth from millions of miles away, including beautiful pictures of the Moon."
More information about the mission is available online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro.
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