2015

NASA Moon Mission Shares Insights into Giant Impacts

New results from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission are providing insights into the huge impacts that dominated the early history of Earth’s moon and other solid worlds, like Earth, Mars, and the satellites of the outer solar system.

In two papers, published this week in the journal Science, researchers examine the origins of the moon’s giant Orientale impact basin. The research helps clarify how the formation of Orientale, approximately 3.8 billion years ago, affected the moon’s geology.

Located along the moon’s southwestern limb – the left-hand edge as seen from Earth – Orientale is the largest and best-preserved example of what’s known as a “multi-ring basin.” Impact craters larger than about 180 miles (300 kilometers) in diameter are referred to as basins. With increasing size, craters tend to have increasingly complex structures, often with multiple concentric, raised rings. Orientale is about 580 miles (930 kilometers) wide and has three distinct rings, which form a bullseye-like pattern.

Multi-ring basins are observed on many of the rocky and icy worlds in our solar system, but until now scientists had not been able to agree on how their rings form. What they needed was more information about the crater’s structure beneath the surface, which is precisely the sort of information contained in gravity science data collected during the GRAIL mission.

The powerful impacts that created basins like Orientale played an important role in the early geologic history of our moon. They were extremely disruptive, world-altering events that caused substantial fracturing, melting and shaking of the young moon’s crust. They also blasted out material that fell back to the surface, coating older features that were already there; scientists use this layering of ejected material to help determine the age of lunar features as they work to unravel the moon’s complex history.

The Importance of Orientale Because scientists realized that Orientale could be quite useful in understanding giant impacts, they gave special importance to observing its structure near the end of the GRAIL mission. The orbit of the mission’s two probes was lowered so they passed less than 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) above the crater’s mountainous rings.

“No other planetary exploration mission has made gravity science observations this close to the moon. You could have waved to the twin spacecraft as they flew overhead if you stood at the ring’s edge,” said Sami Asmar, GRAIL project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

Of particular interest to researchers has been the size of the initial crater that formed during the Orientale impact. With smaller impacts, the initial crater is left behind, and many characteristics of the event can be inferred from the crater’s size. Various past studies have suggested each of Orientale’s three rings might be the remnant of the initial crater.

In the first of the two new studies, scientists teased out the size of the transient crater from GRAIL’s gravity field data. Their analysis shows that the initial crater was somewhere between the size of the basin’s two innermost rings.

“We’ve been able to show that none of the rings in Orientale basin represent the initial, transient crater,” said GRAIL Principal Investigator Maria Zuber of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, lead author of the first paper. “Instead, it appears that, in large impacts like the one that formed Orientale, the surface violently rebounds, obliterating signs of the initial impact.”

The analysis also shows that the impact excavated at least 816,000 cubic miles (3.4 million cubic kilometers) of material – 153 times the combined volume of the Great Lakes.

“Orientale has been an enigma since the first gravity observations of the moon, decades ago,” said Greg Neumann, a co-author of the paper at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We are now able to resolve the individual crustal components of the bullseye gravity signature and correlate them with computer simulations of the formation of Orientale.”

Reproducing the Rings The second study describes how scientists successfully simulated the formation of Orientale to reproduce the crater’s structure as observed by GRAIL. These simulations show, for the first time, how the rings of Orientale formed, which is likely similar for multi-ring basins in general.

“Because our models show how the subsurface structure is formed, matching what GRAIL has observed, we’re confident we’ve gained understanding of the formation of the basin close to 4 billion years ago,” said Brandon Johnson of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, lead author of the second paper.

The results also shed light on another moon mystery: Giant impacts like Orientale should have dredged up deep material from the moon’s mantle, but instead, the composition of the crater’s surface is the same as that of the lunar crust. So, scientists have wondered, where did the mantle material go?

The simulation shows that the deep, initial crater quickly collapses, causing material around the outside to flow inward, and covering up the exposed mantle rock.

The new GRAIL insights about Orientale suggest that other ringed basins, invisible in images, could be discovered by their gravity signature. This may include ringed basins hidden beneath lunar maria – the large, dark areas of solidified lava that include the Sea of Tranquility and the Sea of Serenity.

“The data set we obtained with GRAIL is incredibly rich,” said Zuber. “There are many hidden wonders on the moon that we’ll be uncovering for years to come.”

The twin GRAIL probes were launched in 2011. The mission concluded in 2012.

TOP IMAGE….Orientale basin is about 580 miles (930 kilometers) wide and has three distinct rings, which form a bullseye-like pattern. This view is a mosaic of images from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

LOWER IMAGE….GRAIL Gravity Map of Orientale Basin This color-coded map shows the strength of surface gravity around Orientale basin on Earth’s moon, derived from data obtained by NASA’s GRAIL mission. The GRAIL mission produced a very high-resolution map of gravity over the surface of the entire moon. This plot is zoomed in on the part of that map that features Orientale basin, where the two GRAIL spacecraft flew extremely low near the end of their mission. Their close proximity to the basin made the probes’ measurements particularly sensitive to the gravitational acceleration there (due to the inverse squared law). The color scale plots the gravitational acceleration in units of “gals,” where 1 gal is one centimeter per second squared, or about 1/1000th of the gravitational acceleration at Earth’s surface. (The unit was devised in honor of the astronomer Galileo). Labels on the x and y axes represent latitude and longitude. The GRAIL mission was managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The mission was part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. GRAIL was built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver.

Sadly, Rosetta’s mission has come to an end :(

🆓

Youtubers Chat

5. Bardo.com

Luzu a cambiado el icono del grupo

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “The gays, Mami Luzu and… Alex and… Frank”

Enano fue agregado al grupo

Gay bizco fue agregado al grupo

Frank fue agregado al grupo

Seme supremo666 fue agregado al grupo

Chino minosako arigato ka-ka-ka-kawaii buE fue agregado al grupo

El otro gay fue agregado al grupo

Rubius: wft con los nombres

Alex: yO NO SOY ENANO, SOY DE ESTATURA NORMAL QUE USTEDES SEAN UNOS NEANDERTALES NO ES MI CULPA

Mangel: Se re calento el pibe

Vegetta: Me gusta mi nombre

Frank: Digo lo mismo

Rubius: ¿el otro gay? really nigga?

Luzu: Tomalo o dejalo

Rubius: Y que si lo dejo?

Mangel: No busques peleas Rubiuh

Rubius: No te metas Mangel

Mangel: bue no lo hago

Frank: Y el pueblo dice GOBERNADO

Alex: True xD

Rubius: eniwey, Luzu en lo que estabamos

Vegetta: Se va a armar

Luzu: Solo es un nombre -.- (the willy face)

Rubius: Para ti sera otro nombre pero… eL OTRO GAY, EL OTRO, OTRO, NO NO YO SOY UNICO USEA WHAT

Willy: Mas diva imposible

Luzu: Andas chida y no quieres que te toquen?

Alex: Halaaaa

Vegetta: Ya se armo

Willy: Estaba por grabar por A LA MIERDA, el bardo va primero (?)

Rubius: JA! bitch please, mientras tu eres pepsi yo soy coca-cola

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Rubius te paseo”

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Luzu who?”

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Rubius putita de todOS”

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Luzu culera de villa”

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “OFERTA Rubius aka la putA baratA vende su cuerpo por 0,000001$”

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Luzu el muggle”

Frank: uuuuuh golpe bajo

Vegetta: VAMOS LUZU NO TE DEJES

Willy: LUZU LUZU LUZU LUZU

Mangel: ¿Yo tengo que hacerle barra a Rubius o…?

Alex: Pos yo si

Alex: ESO RUBIUS ESO RUBIUS

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Ellen Page te respondio para que dejaras el spam”

Vegetta: Luzu contraataca

Mangel: Me dolio y no fue a mi

Frank: ¿Rubius respondera?

Alex: Esta claro que él va a contestar

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Luzu sangre sucia (nO METAS A ELLEM BBTA EN ESTo)”

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Ruben la pinche flop”

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Luzu simple mundano”

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Yo tan iphone y tu tan android”

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Casi treintA”

Mangel: Woooooooooooooooo

Willy: UUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHH

Alex: Luzu no te dejes!

Vegetta: Viva el bardo

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Rubius closetera”

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Te lo metes por donde tu sabes ;)”

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Que miedo me das wey”

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “ERES UN SIMPLE MARGINAAAL”

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Eres la PUTA de mangel”

Rubius a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Ya me aburri u.u”

Luzu a cambiado el nombre del grupo a “Yo tambien u.u”

Vegetta: Asi lo van a terminar?

Mangel: Esperaba mas bardo

Alex: La decepccion u.u

Frank: Nos dejaron con ganas de mas

Vegetta: (͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

VISTO A LAS 08:05 AM

Rubius: Hey!

VISTO A LAS 10:25 AM

Rubius: Hooola

VISTO A LAS 01:01 PM

Rubius: Jamigos

VISTO A LAS 05:18 PM

Rubius: Weyes

VISTO A LAS 08:55 PM

Rubius: Pibes

Willy: Jum

Rubius: Pensaba que me no les llegaban mis mensajes

Willy: Yo no estoy muy seguro si llegan o no

Rubius: *face plam*

Luzu: Hello

Rubius: solo una pequeña duda… DONDE COÑO SE METIERON BOLA DE GAYS!?

Vegetta: Yo me meti en Willy, y tu?

Alex: Yo estaba durmiendo

Mangel: Yo me meti en ti Rubius, ia tù sabeh

Frank: Me daba paja contestar

Luzu: Yo me meti en tumblr como mmmm siempre

Willy: Yo no me meti en nadie u.u, ya tu sabs

Rubius: Ew! iasko yo no hablaba de eso

Mangel: Asi no me decias anoche

VISTO A LAS 01:00 AM

Vegetta: Buenos dias a todos mis amigos queridos, hoy estoy super feliz

Luzu: Una buena mamada sisisisisi

Frank: No porque diga que esta feliz quiere decir que recibio una de las buenas

Vegetta: En realidad si es por eso

Alex: JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJA siempre es por eso

Luzu: Willyrex ‘buenas mamadas’ le decian

Willy: No hay malas mamadas :)

Mangel: Si que las hay

Luzu: UUUUHHHHH RUBIUUUUUUUUS

Vegetta: Rubius haciendo malas mamadas desde tiempos remotos

Alex: Lo pondremos en su biografia

Mangel: "Ruben Doblas, hijo, amigo, hermano, amante, youtuber, mal mamador"

Rubius: Todo eso se lo meten por donde les entre :D

Luzu: A nadie le puede entrar tanto, bueno… solo a guili

Willy: Hijo de puta :)

Luzu: La tuya :)

Frank: Hay veces en las que me quedo callado porque no se que poner, ustedes sobrepasan lo inimaginable

Mangel: De eso se trata la cosa, algo por aqui, algo por alla, moviendola siempre

Alex: Moviendola siempre… huummmm

Mangel: Quetecalleslaputabocajoder

Luzu: UUUUUUUHHHHHHH

Alex: Obligame mal intento de pasiva

Luzu: UUUUUHHHHHHH

Mangel: SE LE LLAMA SER VERSATIL

Luzu: UUUUUHHHHHH

Alex: DEJATE DE INDIRECTAS Y DIMELO A LA CARA

Luzu: UUUUUHHHHH

Mangel: NO ANDO CON INDIRECTAS. TE LO ESTOY DICIENDO A LA CARA; APRENDE A LA LEER

Luzu: UUUUUUUHHHHHHHH

Alex: ME LO ESTAS DICIENDO POR MENSAJE ASI QUE NO CUENTA

Luzu: UUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHH

Mangel: UUUHHH QUE MIEDO ERES TAN INTIMIDANTE, OOH QUE ALTO ES SEÑOR

Luzu: UUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Alex: YA SE QUE TE ENCANTAN QUE TE DEN CABRON

Luzu: UUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHH

Mangel: HABLO LA REINA DE LAS PASIVAS

Luzu: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Alex: bueno… POR LO MENOS A MI NO ME DAN MALAS MAMADAS

Luzu: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Frank: No entiendo porque se pelearon u.u

Luzu: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Mangel: Bue ya fue, lo siento Alex u.u

Luzu: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Alex: Yo tambien lo siento Mahe u.u

Luzu: UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Willy: YA DEJA TUS “UUUHHHH” O LE DIRE A LANITA QUE ESTAS FORMANDO PELEAS ENTRE NOSOTROS

Luzu: Te pasas Willy

Mangel: Y dice que yo soy el gobernado…

VISTO A LAS 05:06 PM

Frank: Buenos días

Willy: Que tienen de buenos?

Alex: Y a este que le paso?

Willy: NO ME HABLEN ESTOY DE LUTO

Rubius: arroba Vegetta una explicacion

Vegetta: No hay ni fruta ni cereal

Luzu: I’m sorry Willy

Mangel: Ya llego el gringo

Willy: Sufro mucho…

Frank: #StayStrongWilly

Willy: Gracias compañero

Vegetta: No es para tanto

Willy: clarO PORQUE TU SOLO COMES LECHUGA

Vegetta: CONMIGO NO USES LAS MAYUSCULAS EH!

Willy: Tu no comprendes mi dolor 7-7

Vegetta: pero si es mALDITA FRUTA

Luzu: Ve Vegetta di dijo u una mala pa palabra

Mangel: EL FIN DEL MUNDO SEÑORES

Frank: Le tome screenshot y todo

Rubius: Yo tambien

Alex: Que orgullo :’)

Luzu: Hoy fiesta en mi casa

Frank: Llevo cervezas

Alex: Yo algunas pelis

Rubius: Yo llevo comida

Willy: Llevo juegos de mesa

Mangel: Yo llevo las ganas de comer

Vegetta: A veces le digo a mi mismo “mi mismo no tengo que ser tan serio con mis amigos, tengo que dejarme llevar un poco” pero él me recuerda que si me dejo llevar mucho terminare en una carcel

Rubius: Dejate llevar Vegettita

Luzu: Ven Vegetta

Frank: Do it

Willy: ¿Quien es ese mi mismo?

Alex: Dime que estas jodiendo

Willy: No, hablo muy en serio

Luzu: …

Frank: …

Mangel: …

Rubius: …

Vegetta: …

Alex: Es tonto el pobre

Willy: NO ME DIGAS TONTO ALEX, NO SOY TONTO

Alex: NO ME GRITES COREANO

Vegetta: NO LE DIGAS COREANO A WILLY ALEX, ÉL ES CHINO NO COREANO

Mangel: NO LE GRITES A ALEX VEGETTA

Willy: NO LE GRITES MI VEGETTA POR GRITARLE A ALEX MANGEL

Luzu: NO LE GRITES A MANGEL WILLY

Frank: NO LE GRITES A WILLY LUZU

Rubius: DEJA EN PAZ A LUZU FRANK

Vegetta: NO LE HABLES ASI A FRANK RUBIUS

Willy: NO DEFIENDAS A FRANK VEGETTA

Frank: NO LE DIGAS A VEGETTA QUE HACER WILLY

Luzu: WILLY HACE LO QUE QUIERE FRANK

Rubius: DEJA DE BUSCAR PELEA LUZU

Alex: TU DEJA DE MOLESTAR A LUZU 

Mangel: NO USES LAS MAYUSCULAS CON MI BBTO ALEX

Vegetta: NO TRATES MAL A ALEX LUZU

Luzu: ESE ES MANGEL NO LUZU IDIOTA

Willy: VEGE NO ES IDIOTA LUZU

Willy: YA DEJEN DE PELEAR JODER

Frank: NO NOS MANDES WILLY

Mangel: SEEEEEEEH

Luzu: BIEN DICHO FRANK

Alex: RETUIT

Rubius: IDOL

Vegetta: ASI SE HABLA COMPAÑERO

Willy: 7-7

Vegetta: Pensando bien Willy tiene razon

Luzu: Gobernado.com.grey

Frank: Si ubiera una competencia de quien es el más gobernado entre Luzu, Vegetta y Mangel ¿quien ganaria?

Alex: Triple empate

Frank: True

VISTO A LAS 06:38 AM

Vegetta: Rubius lo que te dije

Rubius: que

Mangel: so

Vegetta: Lo que te dije en el privado

Luzu: Rugetta omg

Rubius: Ooooh eso…

Vegetta: Sep

Willy fue eliminado del grupo

Rubius: Listo, ahora habla

Alex: No entiendo nada

Frank: Que novedad

Vegetta: Lo que pasa es que ayer mientras cenaba con Willy me dijo que me queria llevar a salir EN EL COCHE y ustedes estan por decir “omg paseo Wigetta!!!1111” pero temo por mi vida, Vege necesita una ayudita

Luzu: JAJJAAJJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAAJAJAJAJAJJAAJAJJA

Alex: Perdon pero me rei

Mangel: Lo de Alex

Rubius: Tio no creo que sea para tanto

Frank: Dale el beneficio de la duda

Vegetta: nO QUIERO MORIR

Luzu: Confia en el joven Wilfred, tal vez te sorprenda

Vegetta: Idk

Mangel: En el peor de los casos moriras, solo eso

Vegetta: Solo eso dice… MI VIDA VALE MUCHO

Frank: Bajale dos diva

Vegetta: Si llego a morir que les quede en sus consiencias

Luzu: Mira vos

VISTO A LAS 08:49 PM

Willy fue agregado al grupo

Willy: Por que me sacaron?

Alex: Problemas tecnicos

Willy: No te creo

Alex: Pos no lo hagas

VISTO A LAS 11:25 PM

Alex: Me dejaron en visto…

VISTO A LAS 02:22 AM

Rubius: Estaba mirando nuestras conversaciones pasadas y la verdad parece que nos bajo a todos

Luzu: Nos salimos de control

Mangel: Muchas mayusculas

Frank: Pareciamos tias

Vegetta: Como sabes que asi se portan las tias?

Frank: Porque asi son ellas (?

Mangel: Se imaginan como seria si fueramos tias?

Rubius: hum

Luzu: ¿spoilers?

Frank: tsss calla

Alex: Creo que seria la primera vez que amaria los penes

Mangel: ajam

Willy: Seria bastante raro…

Luzu: Mucho

Vegetta: Pero eso no seria posible

Rubius: A no seeeeeeeer

BARDO POR AQUÍ, BARDO POR ALLÁ, UN BARDO TE SALUDARA. 

No estaba muerta estaba de parranda buE, bueno entre otras noticias YA TENGO VACASIONES SIIII!!!11 NO MAS ESCUELAAAA *party hard* les recuerdo que si quieren participar en el ask aun están a tiempo y eso es todo, no vemos en el próximo con muchas tetas (?

Saturn and Enceladus, from Cassini Spacecraft

15 000 space rocks and counting

The international effort to find, confirm and catalogue the multitude of asteroids that pose a threat to our planet has reached a milestone: 15 000 discovered – with many more to go.

The number of catalogued asteroids approaching Earth has grown rapidly since the count reached 10 000 only three years ago.

Near-Earth objects, or NEOs, are asteroids or comets with sizes ranging from metres to tens of kilometres whose orbits come close to ours, meaning they could hit our planet.

The discovered NEOs are part of a much larger population of more than 700 000 known asteroids in our Solar System.

“The rate of discovery has been high in the past few years, and teams worldwide have been discovering on average 30 new ones per week,” says Ettore Perozzi, manager of the NEO Coordination Centre at ESA’s centre near Rome, Italy.

“A few decades back, 30 were found in a typical year, so international efforts are starting to pay off. We believe that 90% of objects larger than 1000 m have been discovered, but – even with the recent milestone – we’ve only found just 10% of the 100 m NEOs and less than 1% of the 40 m ones.”

Today, the two main discovery efforts are in the US: the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona, and the Pan-STARRS project in Hawaii, jointly accounting for about 90% of the new bodies found.

ESA is contributing through its Space Situational Awareness programme, setting up the centre in Italy to combine new and existing European telescope data and support a new network to distribute information.

Maintaining the European risk list “The centre maintains the European Risk List, containing all objects for which an Earth-impact probability cannot yet be ruled out, however low,” says Detlef Koschny, heading the NEO element of the Space Situational Awareness office.

“There is only a tiny impact probability for any known object in the next 40 years, but all NEOs bear close watching to refine and understand their orbits.”

The coordination centre is also the focal point for scientific studies needed to improve warning services and provide near-realtime data to scientific bodies, international organisations and government decision-makers.

In recent years, astronomers working with or sponsored by ESA have concentrated on follow-up observations, confirming new objects and obtaining more reliable orbits. Some of this work was done with ESA’s own observatory on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Others have been instrumental in imaging or confirming the orbits of particularly interesting objects, such as asteroid 2016 RB1, which grazed our planet on 7 September 2016 by 34 000 km, within the orbit of many telecom satellites.

In the coming years, the pace of discovery is likely to increase. ESA is developing new ‘fly eye’ telescopes to conduct automated nightly wide-sky surveys with their very large fields of view. These are expected to begin operating around 2018. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, being built in Chile, is set to begin hunting space rocks in the near future.

These future telescopes offer the almost complete sky coverage and depth needed for humanity to be sure that as many NEOs as possible are discovered and identified before posing any threat.

Dime, ¿en qué piensas cuando vas caminando sola por la calle mientras escuchas música?

(via todosefuealcarajo)

Tomen manga de pervertidas /._./

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