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By NASA
Lunar geologist Zachary Morse scrabbles over Earth’s rocky landscapes to test equipment for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
Name: Zachary Morse
Title: Assistant Research Scientist in Planetary Geology
Organization: The Planetary Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Laboratory, Science Directorate (Code 698)
Zachary Morse is an assistant research scientist in planetary geology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Photo courtesy of Zachary Morse What do you do and what is most interesting about your role here at Goddard? How do you help support Goddard’s mission?
I work with teams that integrate field instrumentation into future lunar and Mars exploration missions. We go to analog field sites, places on Earth that are geologically similar to the Moon or Mars, to test field instruments. I also support the development of science operations for crewed exploration of the lunar surface.
Why did you become a geologist? What is your educational background?
I always knew that I wanted to study space. In college I started in engineering, but switched to geology because much of the science NASA does on the Moon or Mars involves studying the rocks.
In 2013, I got a B.S. in geology from West Virginia University. In 2018, I got a Ph.D. in planetary science from Western University in London, Ontario.
“I work with teams that integrate field instrumentation into future lunar and Mars exploration missions,” said Zachary. “We go to analog field sites, places on Earth that are geologically similar to the Moon or Mars, to test field instruments.”Photo courtesy of Zachary Morse What brought you to Goddard?
In January 2020, I came to Goddard to do a post-doctoral fellowship because I wanted to work on the Remote, In Situ, and Synchrotron Studies for Science and Exploration 2 (Rise2) project. We go into the field to test handheld geologic instruments that could later be incorporated into missions.
What have been some of your favorite trips into the field?
Iceland, Hawaii, and the New Mexico desert, which is our primary field site for Rise2. These were organized as part of the Goddard Instrument Field Team, a group that hosts trips each year to different analog field sites.
The Iceland trip was my favorite because the place we got to explore looked almost exactly like pictures of the Moon’s surface. It was beautiful and the right setting to learn about the Earth and the Moon. Our team was about 40 people. We were there for two weeks. We mostly camped.
It was definitely a unique experience, one hard to put in words. On Earth, you would normally go camping in a lush forest. But there were no trees, just rock and dust. It was absolutely beautiful in its own way.
The Hawaii trip was also unique. Our team of about 30 people spent almost the entire 10 days in the lava tubes. Not many people get to go into lava tubes. It was very exciting. The biggest part of the lava tube was about 20 feet high and about 10 feet wide. The smallest was so small we had to crawl through.
How do you document field work?
In addition to scientific data, we always take pictures of the rocks and outcrops. It is important to document what a site is like before people interact with it. Sometimes we collect rock samples to bring back to the lab, but we leave the place as we found it.
“I always knew that I wanted to study space,” said Zachary. “In college I started in engineering, but switched to geology because much of the science NASA does on the Moon or Mars involves studying the rocks.”Photo courtesy of Zachary Morse Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope to remain at Goddard; I love it. The team is great and the science is fascinating and important. I want to keep pursuing opportunities for field work. My main goal is to get involved in a lunar mission and support Artemis lunar exploration.
What do you do for fun?
I love the outdoors. I love kayaking on lakes, rivers, and streams. My favorite place is in the Adirondacks. I also love hiking, which I do all over, especially in West Virginia.
Who is your mentor and what did your mentor teach you?
Kelsey Young is my supervisor and mentor. She has taught me so many things including how missions will function and how we can best test equipment in the field for future missions. She taught me how to be organized and focused.
Kelsey Young Dives Into Fieldwork With Aplomb Who inspires you?
Jack Schmitt is an Apollo 17 astronaut who inspired me because he is a geologist. He was the first and only professional geologist who walked on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo missions. I have heard him speak many times and have personally met him.
I would jump at the chance to be the next geologist-astronaut!
What rock formations in the world would you like to explore?
Top of my list would be to explore Acadia National Park in Maine. There is a ton of diverse geology in a small area and the pictures all look stunning. I would also love to visit Glacier National Park to experience the glacier before it melts.
What is your “six-word memoir”? A six-word memoir describes something in just six words.
Exploring Earth to prepare lunar missions.
By Elizabeth M. Jarrell
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Conversations With Goddard is a collection of Q&A profiles highlighting the breadth and depth of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center’s talented and diverse workforce. The Conversations have been published twice a month on average since May 2011. Read past editions on Goddard’s “Our People” webpage.
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Last Updated Sep 03, 2024 EditorMadison OlsonContactRob Garnerrob.garner@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By USH
Mount Kailash is a mountain in Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It lies in the Kailash Range of the Transhimalaya, in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau. The peak of Mount Kailash is located at an elevation of 6,638 m, near the trijunction between China, India and Nepal.
In Tibetan Buddhism, Mount Kailash holds a special place as the Axis Mundi, or the center of the universe. Imagine it as the heart of everything, where heaven and earth meet. This sacred mountain isn't just a random peak; it's like the cosmic hub, connecting different realms together.
In the year 1999, an expedition of Russian Scientists led by Dr Ernst Muldashev claimed that Mount Kailash is too perfectly shaped for a natural mountain. They have discovered that the top of Mt. Kailash is actually a man-made vacuum pyramid. It is surrounded by more than 100 other small pyramids. According to preliminary estimates, the direct height of the pyramid complex is between 100 and 1,800 meters, while the Egyptian pyramid is only 146 meters
It is also believed to be the site of Lord Shiva, the god of destruction and rebirth as well as where the first human beings were created.
According to the legend Shiva has left a giant footprint on the summit of the mountain. Despite extensive searches, no concrete evidence of this footprint has ever been found.
While exploring Mount Kailash on Google Earth, I spotted a large, unusual anomaly near the summit. It resembles two hands, each with four visible fingers, positioned opposite each other and seemingly carved into the rock.
Could these huge hands be a kind of a 'footprint' of Shiva that people have been searching for?
As for climbing up the summit, some daring mountaineers have attempted to do so, but with no luck. It also is said that who climb Mount Kailash age quickly. The time that human takes to age two weeks only take 12 hours in the mountain. Numerous hikers have detailed that they feel like their nails and hairs are developing rapidly within 12 hours.
Trekking all the way up to the peak of Mount Kailash is held to be a forbidden act among Hindus for the fear of trespassing the sanctity of the mountain and disturbing the divine energies residing there.
Even planes don't fly over Kailash as Mount Kailash is said to possess a mysterious magnetic anomaly that disrupts navigational instruments and disrupts compass readings. This phenomenon has puzzled scientists with no concrete explanation offered to date.
Coordinates: 31° 4'4.83"N 81°18'24.47"E
Mount Kailash is still a mystery. The unconquered peak remains wrapped in myths, legends, and spiritual tales.View the full article
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By NASA
6 min read
Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
The JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured two volcanic plumes rising above the horizon of Jupiter’s moon Io. The image was taken Feb. 3 from a distance of about 2,400 miles (3,800 kilometers).Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Image processing by Andrea Luck (CC BY) Infrared imagery from the solar-powered spacecraft heats up the discussion on the inner workings of Jupiter’s hottest moon.
New findings from NASA’s Juno probe provide a fuller picture of how widespread the lava lakes are on Jupiter’s moon Io and include first-time insights into the volcanic processes at work there. These results come courtesy of Juno’s Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) instrument, contributed by the Italian Space Agency, which “sees” in infrared light. Researchers published a paper on Juno’s most recent volcanic discoveries on June 20 in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment.
Io has intrigued the astronomers since 1610, when Galileo Galilei first discovered the Jovian moon, which is slightly larger than Earth. Some 369 years later, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft captured a volcanic eruption on the moon. Subsequent missions to Jupiter, with more Io flybys, discovered additional plumes — along with lava lakes. Scientists now believe Io, which is stretched and squeezed like an accordion by neighboring moons and massive Jupiter itself, is the most volcanically active world in the solar system. But while there are many theories on the types of volcanic eruptions across the surface of the moon, little supporting data exists.
In both May and October 2023, Juno flew by Io, coming within about 21,700 miles (35,000 kilometers) and 8,100 miles (13,000 kilometers), respectively. Among Juno’s instruments getting a good look at the beguiling moon was JIRAM.
Infrared data collected Oct. 15, 2023, by the JIRAM instrument aboard NASA’s Juno shows Chors Patera, a lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io. The team believes the lake is largely covered by a thick, molten crust, with a hot ring around the edges where lava from Io’s interior is directly exposed to space.NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM/MSSS Designed to capture the infrared light (which is not visible to the human eye) emerging from deep inside Jupiter, JIRAM probes the weather layer down to 30 to 45 miles (50 to 70 kilometers) below the gas giant’s cloud tops. But during Juno’s extended mission, the mission team has also used the instrument to study the moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. The JIRAM Io imagery showed the presence of bright rings surrounding the floors of numerous hot spots.
“The high spatial resolution of JIRAM’s infrared images, combined with the favorable position of Juno during the flybys, revealed that the whole surface of Io is covered by lava lakes contained in caldera-like features,” said Alessandro Mura, a Juno co-investigator from the National Institute for Astrophysics in Rome. “In the region of Io’s surface in which we have the most complete data, we estimate about 3% of it is covered by one of these molten lava lakes.” (A caldera is a large depression formed when a volcano erupts and collapses.)
Fire-Breathing Lakes
JIRAM’s Io flyby data not only highlights the moon’s abundant lava reserves, but also provides a glimpse of what may be going on below the surface. Infrared images of several Io lava lakes show a thin circle of lava at the border, between the central crust that covers most of the lava lake and the lake’s walls. Recycling of melt is implied by the lack of lava flows on and beyond the rim of the lake, indicating that there is a balance between melt that has erupted into the lava lakes and melt that is circulated back into the subsurface system.
This animation is an artist’s concept of Loki Patera, a lava lake on Jupiter’s moon Io, made using data from the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft. With multiple islands in its interior, Loki is a depression filled with magma and rimmed with molten lava. NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS “We now have an idea of what is the most frequent type of volcanism on Io: enormous lakes of lava where magma goes up and down,” said Mura. “The lava crust is forced to break against the walls of the lake, forming the typical lava ring seen in Hawaiian lava lakes. The walls are likely hundreds of meters high, which explains why magma is generally not observed spilling out of the paterae” — bowl-shaped features created by volcanism — “and moving across the moon’s surface.”
JIRAM data suggests that most of the surface of these Io hot spots is composed of a rocky crust that moves up and down cyclically as one contiguous surface due to the central upwelling of magma. In this hypothesis, because the crust touches the lake’s walls, friction keeps it from sliding, causing it to deform and eventually break, exposing lava just below the surface.
An alternative hypothesis remains in play: Magma is welling up in the middle of the lake, spreading out and forming a crust that sinks along the rim of the lake, exposing lava.
“We are just starting to wade into the JIRAM results from the close flybys of Io in December 2023 and February 2024,” said Scott Bolton, principal investigator for Juno at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “The observations show fascinating new information on Io’s volcanic processes. Combining these new results with Juno’s longer-term campaign to monitor and map the volcanoes on Io’s never-before-seen north and south poles, JIRAM is turning out to be one of the most valuable tools to learn how this tortured world works.”
Juno executed its 62nd flyby of Jupiter — which included an Io flyby at an altitude of about 18,175 miles (29,250 kilometers) — on June 13. The 63rd flyby of the gas giant is scheduled for July 16.
More About the Mission
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) funded the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.
More information about Juno is available at:
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/juno
News Media Contacts
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011
agle@jpl.nasa.gov
Karen Fox / Charles Blue
NASA Headquarters
202-385-1287 / 202-802-5345
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / charles.e.blue@nasa.gov
Deb Schmid
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio
210-522-2254dschmid@swri.org
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Last Updated Jun 26, 2024 Related Terms
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By Space Force
The 15th Space Surveillance Squadron created and deployed web-based application MOSS, to enhance scheduling efficiency, enabling 150 more days per year of telescope usage, aiming to provide transparent scheduling capabilities to the research and development and intelligence community.
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