2007 Holiday Greetings from the Ames Center Director NASA Ames Study
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National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA December 2007 2007 Holiday greetings from the Ames center director BY S. PETE WORDEN and help prepare NASA to put boots on see NASA in a whole new way. As 2007 draws to a close, it’s the moon by the end of the next decade. Next year promises to be even important to take time to pause and This year, NASA Ames helped fire- more exciting. NASA will be cel- reflect on our numerous accomplish- fighters battle some of the worst wildfires ebrating its 50th anniversary. In the ments. We had a great year. We made in California’s history. NASA flew a fall, we’re launching LCROSS on its major contributions in several key remotely piloted aircraft called the Ikhana mission to the moon. In 2009, we’re areas, including lunar exploration, over devastating wildfires in Southern looking forward to seeing the Kepler environment, collaborations and explo- California, Oregon and near Gilroy. Us- mission begin its search for habitable ration, establishing Ames as a premier ing its sophisticated imaging technology planets. It’s an exciting time to be research center. on board, Ames was able to help firefight- here at NASA Ames. NASA announced this year that ers peer through the dense smoke to see So as we say goodbye to 2007 the new Lunar Science Institute will how best to combat the fierce flames. and look forward to 2008, I want to be based at Ames, ensuring that our Ames forged key partnerships with express my sincere thanks to each center will play a key role in future some of the best and brightest compa- and every one of you for all your hard exploration as NASA returns to the nies on the planet, including our Silicon work and numerous contributions moon and later travels to Mars. Next Valley neighbors, Google and Microsoft. to the center. I know that with your year, the Lunar CRater Observation We are working with Google to develop help, we can make 2008 even better. and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will Google Moon so that everyone can take I wish you and your families happy slam into the moon and provide scien- a virtual trip to the lunar surface. With holidays and best wishes for the new tists with a wealth of data that will tell Microsoft, we are developing an immer- year. us a great deal about the lunar surface sive imaging technology that lets people NASA Ames study reveals less water in Mars’ clouds BY JOHN BLUCK “The martian clouds we are study- much harder to initiate cloud forma- Martian clouds may contain less ing are composed of water ice, like tion at these cloud temperatures than water than previously thought, ac- some clouds on Earth. However, they what we thought,” he explained. cording to a new NASA Ames study. are forming at very cold temperatures, “This difficulty results in larger New NASA laboratory measure- often below minus 100 degrees Cel- cloud particles, which fall out of the atmosphere more quickly and, thus, results in less cloud mass and a drier One place where water can be found on Mars is its colorful atmosphere,” Colaprete explained. clouds. In this photo, taken by Colaprete presented his findings Viking Orbiter 1, which visited Dec. 11, 2007, during the annual Amer- Mars in 1976, water clouds are ican Geophysical Union (AGU) fall visible just after sunrise in and meeting at San Francisco’s Moscone around a maze of canyons known Convention Center. as Noctis Labyrinthus. Scientists don’t yet know, however, why Previously, scientists believed that these clouds formed, and why martian clouds would form at 100 some stick to the canyons. One percent relative humidity, but the new possibility is that water sometimes study shows that martian air has to condenses in shaded regions of the be more supersaturated with water to canyons, only to evaporate into form clouds than scientists theorized clouds when exposed to the morn- before. ing sun. Water in any form on continued on page 2 the Mars might be important to sustaining life and possible future human exploration. On the Inside . Page 2 - Scientists assess possibilities of Photo: Viking Project, USGS, JPL, NASA water and life on Enceladus Page 5 - Ames top stories in 2007 ments of simulated martian clouds sius (minus 148 degrees Fahrenheit),” Page 7 - Ames transformed into ‘North Pole’ reveal that scientists may have been said Tony Colaprete, an Ames plan- overestimating the amount of water in etary scientist. “What we have found Page 8 - NASA flies Ikhana over wildfires the planet’s atmosphere. in our laboratory studies is that it is Page 13 - Classifieds www.nasa.gov Scientists assess possibilities of water and life on Enceladus BY JOHN BLUCK Life," on Dec. 10, There is a chance liquid water may 2007, at the Moscone exist on Saturn's moon, Enceladus – Convention Center and even a possibility that life could South in San Fran- be there, too – according to NASA cisco. photo NASA scientists who are studying data from Though Saturn's NASA's Cassini spacecraft. moons are far from High-resolution Cassini images the sun, there could show icy jets and towering plumes be liquid water on ejecting large quantities of particles Enceladus because very rapidly as seen in images taken the "general thought by the spacecraft. Scientists have is that there must found evidence the jets might be be some sort of Plumes of icy material extend above the southern polar region of Saturn’s erupting from near-surface pockets of tidal heating," said moon Enceladus as imaged by the Cassini spacecraft in February 2005. The monochrome view is presented along with a color-coded version on the right. liquid water above 32 degrees Fahr- McKay. The latter reveals a fainter and much more extended plume component. enheit, like cold versions of the Old Some scien- Faithful geyser in Yellowstone Nation- tists hypothesize might live on Enceladus. The bacte- al Park, according to NASA reports. that bacteria, living off hydrogen and ria would be "similar to subsurface, Scientists are eagerly anticipating carbon dioxide, and making methane, continued on page 9 the results from a closer Enceladus flyby proposed for an extended Cassi- Study reveals less water in Mars’ clouds ni mission, according to Christopher continued from front page McKay, a scientist at NASA Ames. and time,” Colaprete observed. Clouds "The geysers seem like good “We want to understand the climate of Mars and how the martian in the atmosphere largely control the evidence for liquid water," McKay ob- amount of water that comes off of the served. "The geysers and the methane water cycle operates,” Colaprete said. “Clouds are integral to this system, north pole and migrates to the south in them both seem to up the chances just as on Earth. However, assuming pole. for life. I would say that the chance for the clouds form or behave the same as “Water that reaches the southern life is good enough to warrant further on Earth may be a bad assumption.” winter pole freezes to the surface,” Co- investigation." According to Colaprete, more ac- laprete said. “In the southern spring, Scientists believe the methane curate understanding of the processes this water re-evaporates and returns could come from three potential that control martian clouds and water to the northern polar cap. The cycle is sources. Researchers say it could be cycle are critical to understanding repeated year after year.” primordial – very ancient – or it could Mars’ current and past climates. If all the water in the atmosphere be manufactured deep within Encela- A large water ice cap at the mar- were to freeze out to the surface, it dus, and lastly, and least likely, the tian north pole dominates the martian would make a layer of ice about one- methane could be biological in origin. water cycle. During the northern fifth the thickness of a human hair, McKay and Carolyn Porco, Space summer this water ice cap evaporates, according to Colaprete. Science Institute, Boulder, Colo., pre- and winds carry the resulting water “Cloud mass is typically only 10 to 20 percent of the total water content. sided over numerous scientific pre- vapor to the south pole, according to Colaprete. However, the thin martian atmosphere sentations during a morning session, is much more sensitive/reactive to the "Enceladus: Possibilities for Water and “The amount of water in the mar- tian atmosphere varies greatly in space influence of these clouds,” he said. American Geophysical Union conference held The annual American Geophysical Union, (AGU) conference took place from Dec. 10 - 14, 2007, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco (right photo). Chris McKay of Ames and Carolyn Porco, Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo., presided over numerous scientific presentations during a morning session, ‘Enceladus: Pos- sibilities for Water and Life.’ Ames science writer John Bluck wrote several articles based upon recent discoveries that were the subject of some of the presentations at the conference. The articles, ‘NASA Study Reveals Less Water in Mars’ Clouds’ focuses on recent findings by NASA Ames planetary scientist, Tony Colaprete, photo by Eric James NASA who presented his study results on Dec. 11; the article ‘NASA Scientists Assess the Possibilities of Water and Life on Enceladus;’ and the story, ‘NASA Scientists Predict Major Ecosystem Carbon Loss in Western States,’ are all included in this issue of the Astrogram. 2 Astrogram December 2007 Scientists predict major ecosystem carbon loss in western states BY JOHN BLUCK Future climate scenarios of air tem- perature warming imply that ecosys- tems across the western United States will experience large carbon losses to the atmosphere and tree growth decline in the western United States, according to NASA Earth scientists.