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By NASA
Hubble Space Telescope Home NASA’s Hubble, MAVEN… Missions Hubble Home Overview About Hubble The History of Hubble Hubble Timeline Why Have a Telescope in Space? Hubble by the Numbers At the Museum FAQs Impact & Benefits Hubble’s Impact & Benefits Science Impacts Cultural Impact Technology Benefits Impact on Human Spaceflight Astro Community Impacts Science Hubble Science Science Themes Science Highlights Science Behind Discoveries Hubble’s Partners in Science Universe Uncovered Explore the Night Sky Observatory Hubble Observatory Hubble Design Mission Operations Missions to Hubble Hubble vs Webb Team Hubble Team Career Aspirations Hubble Astronauts News Hubble News Hubble News Archive Social Media Media Resources Multimedia Multimedia Images Videos Sonifications Podcasts E-books Lithographs Fact Sheets Glossary Posters Hubble on the NASA App More Online Activities 6 min read
NASA’s Hubble, MAVEN Help Solve the Mystery of Mars’ Escaping Water
NASA, ESA, STScI, John T. Clarke (Boston University); Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI) Mars was once a very wet planet as is evident in its surface geological features. Scientists know that over the last 3 billion years, at least some water went deep underground, but what happened to the rest? Now, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) missions are helping unlock that mystery.
“There are only two places water can go. It can freeze into the ground, or the water molecule can break into atoms, and the atoms can escape from the top of the atmosphere into space,” explained study leader John Clarke of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University in Massachusetts. “To understand how much water there was and what happened to it, we need to understand how the atoms escape into space.”
Clarke and his team combined data from Hubble and MAVEN to measure the number and current escape rate of the hydrogen atoms escaping into space. This information allowed them to extrapolate the escape rate backwards through time to understand the history of water on the Red Planet.
Escaping Hydrogen and “Heavy Hydrogen”
Water molecules in the Martian atmosphere are broken apart by sunlight into hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Specifically, the team measured hydrogen and deuterium, which is a hydrogen atom with a neutron in its nucleus. This neutron gives deuterium twice the mass of hydrogen. Because its mass is higher, deuterium escapes into space much more slowly than regular hydrogen.
Over time, as more hydrogen was lost than deuterium, the ratio of deuterium to hydrogen built up in the atmosphere. Measuring the ratio today gives scientists a clue to how much water was present during the warm, wet period on Mars. By studying how these atoms currently escape, they can understand the processes that determined the escape rates over the last four billion years and thereby extrapolate back in time.
Although most of the study’s data comes from the MAVEN spacecraft, MAVEN is not sensitive enough to see the deuterium emission at all times of the Martian year. Unlike the Earth, Mars swings far from the Sun in its elliptical orbit during the long Martian winter, and the deuterium emissions become faint. Clarke and his team needed the Hubble data to “fill in the blanks” and complete an annual cycle for three Martian years (each of which is 687 Earth days). Hubble also provided additional data going back to 1991 – prior to MAVEN’s arrival at Mars in 2014.
The combination of data between these missions provided the first holistic view of hydrogen atoms escaping Mars into space.
These are far-ultraviolet Hubble images of Mars near its farthest point from the Sun, called aphelion, on December 31, 2017 (top), and near its closest approach to the Sun, called perihelion, on December 19, 2016 (bottom). The atmosphere is clearly brighter and more extended when Mars is close to the Sun.
Reflected sunlight from Mars at these wavelengths shows scattering by atmospheric molecules and haze, while the polar ice caps and some surface features are also visible. Hubble and MAVEN showed that Martian atmospheric conditions change very quickly. When Mars is close to the Sun, water molecules rise very rapidly through the atmosphere, breaking apart and releasing atoms at high altitudes. NASA, ESA, STScI, John T. Clarke (Boston University); Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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A Dynamic and Turbulent Martian Atmosphere
“In recent years scientists have found that Mars has an annual cycle that is much more dynamic than people expected 10 or 15 years ago,” explained Clarke. “The whole atmosphere is very turbulent, heating up and cooling down on short timescales, even down to hours. The atmosphere expands and contracts as the brightness of the Sun at Mars varies by 40 percent over the course of a Martian year.”
The team discovered that the escape rates of hydrogen and deuterium change rapidly when Mars is close to the Sun. In the classical picture that scientists previously had, these atoms were thought to slowly diffuse upward through the atmosphere to a height where they could escape.
But that picture no longer accurately reflects the whole story, because now scientists know that atmospheric conditions change very quickly. When Mars is close to the Sun, the water molecules, which are the source of the hydrogen and deuterium, rise through the atmosphere very rapidly releasing atoms at high altitudes.
The second finding is that the changes in hydrogen and deuterium are so rapid that the atomic escape needs added energy to explain them. At the temperature of the upper atmosphere only a small fraction of the atoms have enough speed to escape the gravity of Mars. Faster (super-thermal) atoms are produced when something gives the atom a kick of extra energy. These events include collisions from solar wind protons entering the atmosphere or sunlight that drives chemical reactions in the upper atmosphere.
Mars was once a very wet planet. Scientists know that over the last 3 billion years, some of the water went underground, but what happened to the rest? Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Paul Morris; Mars Animations Producer: Dan Gallagher Serving as a Proxy
Studying the history of water on Mars is fundamental not only to understanding planets in our own solar system but also the evolution of Earth-size planets around other stars. Astronomers are finding more and more of these planets, but they’re difficult to study in detail. Mars, Earth and Venus all sit in or near our solar system’s habitable zone, the region around a star where liquid water could pool on a rocky planet; yet all three planets have dramatically different present-day conditions. Along with its sister planets, Mars can help scientists grasp the nature of far-flung worlds across our galaxy.
These results appear in the July 26 edition of Science Advances, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
About the Missions
The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.
MAVEN’s principal investigator is based at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado Boulder. LASP is also responsible for managing science operations and public outreach and communications. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN mission. Lockheed Martin Space built the spacecraft and is responsible for MAVEN mission operations at Goddard. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California provides navigation and Deep Space Network support. The MAVEN team is preparing to celebrate the spacecraft’s 10th year at Mars in September 2024.
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contacts:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Ann Jenkins and Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD
Science Contact:
John T. Clarke
Boston University, Boston, MA
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Last Updated Sep 05, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Mars MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) Missions Planetary Science Planets Science Mission Directorate The Solar System Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble and Maven
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble Science Highlights
MAVEN
The Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission is the first mission devoted to understanding the Martian upper atmosphere.
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun, and the seventh largest. It’s the only planet we know of inhabited…
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By NASA
AMS-02 mounted on the outside of the space station.NASA Visible matter in the form of stars and planets adds up to about five percent of the total known mass of the Universe. The rest is either dark matter, antimatter, or dark energy. The exact nature of these substances is unknown, but the International Space Station’s Alpha-Magnetic Spectrometer or AMS-02 is helping to solve the mystery.
AMS-02 collects data on charged particles from cosmic ray events, which helps scientists understand the origin of those rays and could ultimately reveal whether dark matter and antimatter exist.
To date, the instrument has collected data on about 573 events per second on average – just over 18 billion per year. This high volume of data enables highly precise statistical analyses, and multiple groups of researchers independently process the raw data to ensure accurate results.
Learn more about astrophysics research on the space station.
This view shows the core of AMS-02, a massive magnet that bends particles from space to reveal whether their charge is positive or negative.NASA AMS-02 is the hexagonal shape visible on one of the space station’s trusses, just to the right of the center.NASA Keep Exploring Discover More Topics
Latest News from Space Station Research
Station Science 101: Earth and Space Science
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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
In this clip, engineers are testing the the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s Deployable Aperture Cover. This component is responsible for keeping light out of the telescope barrel. It will be deployed once in orbit using a soft material attached to support booms and remains in this position throughout the observatory’s lifetime. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center The “visor” for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope recently completed several environmental tests simulating the conditions it will experience during launch and in space. Called the Deployable Aperture Cover, this large sunshade is designed to keep unwanted light out of the telescope. This milestone marks the halfway point for the cover’s final sprint of testing, bringing it one step closer to integration with Roman’s other subsystems this fall.
Designed and built at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, the Deployable Aperture Cover consists of two layers of reinforced thermal blankets, distinguishing it from previous hard aperture covers, like those on NASA’s Hubble. The sunshade will remain folded during launch and deploy after Roman is in space via three booms that spring upward when triggered electronically.
“With a soft deployable like the Deployable Aperture Cover, it’s very difficult to model and precisely predict what it’s going to do — you just have to test it,” said Matthew Neuman, a Deployable Aperture Cover mechanical engineer at Goddard. “Passing this testing now really proves that this system works.”
After a successful test deployment at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., clean room technicians inspect the Deployable Aperture Cover for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.NASA/Chris Gunn During its first major environmental test, the sunshade endured conditions simulating what it will experience in space. It was sealed inside NASA Goddard’s Space Environment Simulator — a massive chamber that can achieve extremely low pressure and a wide range of temperatures. Technicians placed the DAC near six heaters — a Sun simulator — and thermal simulators representing Roman’s Outer Barrel Assembly and Solar Array Sun Shield. Since these two components will eventually form a subsystem with the Deployable Aperture Cover, replicating their temperatures allows engineers to understand how heat will actually flow when Roman is in space.
When in space, the sunshade is expected to operate at minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 55 degrees Celsius. However, recent testing cooled the cover to minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 70 degrees Celsius — ensuring that it will work even in unexpectedly cold conditions. Once chilled, technicians triggered its deployment, carefully monitoring through cameras and sensors onboard. Over the span of about a minute, the sunshade successfully deployed, proving its resilience in extreme space conditions.
“This was probably the environmental test we were most nervous about,” said Brian Simpson, project design lead for the Deployable Aperture Cover at NASA Goddard. “If there’s any reason that the Deployable Aperture Cover would stall or not completely deploy, it would be because the material became frozen stiff or stuck to itself.”
Brian Simpson, product design lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, adjusts sensors on the Deployable Aperture Cover for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The sensors will collect data on the DAC’s response to testing.NASA/Chris Gunn If the sunshade were to stall or partially deploy, it would obscure Roman’s view, severely limiting the mission’s science capabilities.
After passing thermal vacuum testing, the sunshade underwent acoustic testing to simulate the launch’s intense noises, which can cause vibrations at higher frequencies than the shaking of the launch itself. During this test, the sunshade remained stowed, hanging inside one of Goddard’s acoustic chambers — a large room outfitted with two gigantic horns and hanging microphones to monitor sound levels.
With the sunshade plastered in sensors, the acoustic test ramped up in noise level, eventually subjecting the cover to one full minute at 138 decibels — louder than a jet plane’s takeoff at close range! Technicians attentively monitored the sunshade’s response to the powerful acoustics and gathered valuable data, concluding that the test succeeded.
Technicians prepare for acoustic testing at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. During testing, the Deployable Aperture Cover for NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was suspended in the air and exposed to 138 decibels for one full minute to simulate launch’s intense noise.NASA/Chris Gunn “For the better part of a year, we’ve been building the flight assembly,” Simpson said. “We’re finally getting to the exciting part where we get to test it. We’re confident that we’ll get through with no problem, but after each test we can’t help but breathe a collective sigh of relief!”
Next, the Deployable Aperture Cover will undergo its two final phases of testing. These assessments will measure the sunshade’s natural frequency and response to the launch’s vibrations. Then, the Deployable Aperture Cover will integrate with the Outer Barrel Assembly and Solar Array Sun Shield this fall.
For more information about the Roman Space Telescope, visit NASA’s website. To virtually tour an interactive version of the telescope, visit:
https://roman.gsfc.nasa.gov/interactive
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions. The primary industrial partners are BAE Systems, Inc in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Rochester, New York; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.
Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
By Laine Havens
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media contact:
Claire Andreoli
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
301-286-1940
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Last Updated Aug 09, 2024 EditorAshley BalzerContactAshley Balzerashley.m.balzer@nasa.govLocationGoddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
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By NASA
Artist’s concept of an Artemis astronaut deploying an instrument on the lunar surface.Credits: NASA NASA has chosen the first science instruments designed for astronauts to deploy on the surface of the Moon during Artemis III. Once installed near the lunar South Pole, the three instruments will collect valuable scientific data about the lunar environment, the lunar interior, and how to sustain a long-duration human presence on the Moon, which will help prepare NASA to send astronauts to Mars.
“Artemis marks a bold new era of exploration, where human presence amplifies scientific discovery. With these innovative instruments stationed on the Moon’s surface, we’re embarking on a transformative journey that will kick-start the ability to conduct human-machine teaming – an entirely new way of doing science,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “These three deployed instruments were chosen to begin scientific investigations that will address key Moon to Mars science objectives.”
The instruments will address three Artemis science objectives: understanding planetary processes, understanding the character and origin of lunar polar volatiles, and investigating and mitigating exploration risks. They were specifically chosen because of their unique installation requirements that necessitate deployment by humans during moonwalks. All three payloads were selected for further development to fly on Artemis III that’s targeted to launch in 2026, however, final manifesting decisions about the mission will be determined at a later date. Members of these payload teams will become members of NASA’s Artemis III science team.
The Lunar Environment Monitoring Station (LEMS) is a compact, autonomous seismometer suite designed to carry out continuous, long-term monitoring of the seismic environment, namely ground motion from moonquakes, in the lunar south polar region. The instrument will characterize the regional structure of the Moon’s crust and mantle, which will add valuable information to lunar formation and evolution models. LEMS previously received four years of NASA’s Development and Advancement of Lunar Instrumentation funding for engineering development and risk reduction. It is intended to operate on the lunar surface from three months up to two years and may become a key station in a future global lunar geophysical network. LEMS is led by Dr. Mehdi Benna, from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Lunar Effects on Agricultural Flora (LEAF) will investigate the lunar surface environment’s effects on space crops. LEAF will be the first experiment to observe plant photosynthesis, growth, and systemic stress responses in space-radiation and partial gravity. Plant growth and development data, along with environmental parameters measured by LEAF, will help scientists understand the use of plants grown on the Moon for both human nutrition and life support on the Moon and beyond. LEAF is led by Christine Escobar of Space Lab Technologies, LLC, in Boulder, Colorado.
The Lunar Dielectric Analyzer (LDA) will measure the regolith’s ability to propagate an electric field, which is a key parameter in the search for lunar volatiles, especially ice. It will gather essential information about the structure of the Moon’s subsurface, monitor dielectric changes caused by the changing angle of the Sun as the Moon rotates, and look for possible frost formation or ice deposits. LDA, an internationally contributed payload, is led by Dr. Hideaki Miyamoto of the University of Tokyo and supported by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency).
“These three scientific instruments will be our first opportunity since Apollo to leverage the unique capabilities of human explorers to conduct transformative lunar science,” said Joel Kearns, deputy associate administrator for exploration in NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “These payloads mark our first steps toward implementing the recommendations for the high-priority science outlined in the Artemis III Science Definition Team report.”
Artemis III, the first mission to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon in more than 50 years, will explore the south polar region of the Moon, within 6 degrees of latitude from the South Pole. Several proposed landing regions for the mission are located among some of the oldest parts of the Moon. Together with the permanently shadowed regions, they provide the opportunity to learn about the history of the Moon through previously unstudied lunar materials.
With the Artemis campaign, NASA will land the first woman, first person of color, and its first international partner astronaut on the Moon, and establish long-term exploration for scientific discovery and preparation for human missions to Mars for the benefit of all.
For more information on Artemis science, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/lunar-science
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Karen Fox / Erin Morton
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1257 / 202-805-9393
karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / erin.morton@nasa.gov
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Last Updated Mar 26, 2024 LocationNASA Headquarters Related Terms
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